joe gaydos: Wildlife veterinarian at the seadoc society

Tell us about yourself!

I’ve always been an animal person. I don’t remember it, but my parents tell me I was so proud to bring them a caterpillar I found at the age of two. It was poisonous and my hand was swollen to twice its normal size but all I seemed to notice was the cool creature I found. As I grew older, I just kept exploring further and further—eventually making my way to the ocean. I didn’t learn to scuba dive until I took my current job at age 30. For me, the first dive was WAY cooler than snorkeling—it opened up a whole new world to me that I never knew about. It was like the day I first took some pond water and looked at it under a microscope in elementary school—I couldn’t believe such an amazingly wild world existed that I had never seen before.

Can you share more about your work?

I’m a wildlife veterinarian and a scientist. Every day I think about wildlife, the ocean, and what we can do to make it healthier. Sometimes that means taking care of individual animals, like helping disentangle a big sea lion that is being strangled by plastic. Other days I’m looking at the bigger picture of how multiple things like toxins, underwater noise, and over-fishing can conspire to affect fish and wildlife. I’m lucky. I love all of the amazing creatures I get to work with and I love being able to focus my work on making the ocean better for them and for us. People depend on the ocean too even though we don’t live there full time.

How did you become interested in studying the ocean?

Oh for me I just fell into it. I had mostly been doing terrestrial wildlife health work when I saw a job open to do marine wildlife health. I picked up a bunch of books on the ocean and was immediately drawn in. I was lucky I got the job. I haven’t looked back since.

What do you wish everyone knew about the ocean?

For a lot of people, the ocean is something distant. Maybe they visit occasionally. Maybe never. Maybe they don’t swim or are afraid of sharks. But it’s this amazing place and I’d love to see everybody be able to fall in love with it. We all depend on the ocean—even people who live far, far from the shoreline. If we all could be amazed by it, I’m sure we’d do a better job taking care of it. Why wouldn’t we want to take care of something that does so much for us?

With your work, what do you hope to accomplish/discover/learn?

As a scientist, I get to play an important role in discovery, testing, and monitoring the ocean. How can we really know and connect to and protect the ocean if we don’t have facts? My job is to use science to learn about the ocean. That information helps people get inspired when they learn cool facts, like the fact that some rockfish can live to be 200 years old. Facts also help us understand what is happening to the ocean—like how ocean waters are becoming more acidic (called ocean acidification). It also helps us understand why. In the case of ocean acidification, it is because of all of the CO2 we are putting into the atmosphere is dissolving into the ocean. Facts like this help us address our CO2 output, help the ocean, and ultimately help us and all of the animals that live there.

What is some of the best advice you have received from mentors? What advice do you have for young scientists, artists, and explorers?

Lots of people told me that it was hard to do what I wanted. They were right, but you can never let that discourage you. They’d say, “Oh you want to be a veterinarian? It is super hard to get into veterinary school”. I didn’t let that stop me. I just always said to myself, “Yeah, I guess I’m going to have to work hard”. Don’t let other people tell you what you can and cannot do! Work hard and do it.

Please share a favorite memory from your work!

I’ve had so many wonderful experiences on boats, underwater, working with other ocean-loving people. One of my favorite stories is from a team of us were out diving. We were counting fish trying to determine if a small voluntary protected area helped protect fish. We got to the site on the west side of San Juan Island and there was a superpod of southern resident killer whales present. I didn’t want to bother the whales, but we had a small slack tide in which we could dive so I radioed Ken Balcom. He said just go ahead and get in - you’re not going to bother the whales. So we did. The entire dive we could hear the whales talking to each other. Their calls were so loud I kept looking over my shoulder to see if they were right next to me. I never saw a killer whale underwater that day, but it was super fun swimming with them like that.

You can follow Joe and the SesDoc Society on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Joe, thanks for all your hard work helping to protect our Salish Sea home. Please keep inspiring others with your great videos, books, and teaching!

We always love to be introduced to new ocean explorers. If there’s someone you’d like to see an interview from, send us your ideas!