In January, the Puget Sound Partnership facilitated an interview with Nora Nickum, the vice president of conservation programs and partnerships at the Seattle Aquarium. In this role, she manages two teams: policy experts advocating for better protection of the ocean and field scientists studying the local marine environment.
Outside of work, Nora is a children’s book author. She’s written Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest, This Book is Full of Holes, and This Book Bubbles Over. Her most recent book is titled Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure and tells the story of a small subset of gray whales that take a detour into Puget Sound during their annual migration from Baja to the Arctic. These whales, known as the Sounders, are drawn off course by mudflats near Whidbey Island offering a ghost shrimp buffet. It’s a risky maneuver with a delicious reward.
To discuss Twelve Daring Grays more deeply, 11-year-old Maia spoke with Nora about her inspiration for the book, her work at the aquarium, and the remarkable migration of gray whales. Their interview is available on the Making Waves podcast, with selected excerpts featured here alongside imagery from the book.
Maia: Why did you choose to write your book about the Sounders?
Nora: I thought it was really interesting that these whales take this unique, adventurous, risky, and long detour off the migration path. It’s like a pit stop for good food. They scrape the bottom of the sea floor and filter out the ghost shrimp with their baleen. What’s risky is that these mudflats aren’t always underwater. So they eat when the water comes in and move out quickly with the tide so they don’t get stranded. I thought this story delivers an important message: not all gray whales do exactly the same thing and as people, we don’t all have to do the same thing either. We can forge our own paths and do something amazing.
Maia: What’s your favorite page of Twelve Daring Grays?
Nora: The illustrator, Ellie McKay, did really amazing art for this book. She paints, draws, and layers elements in her home studio so it looks 3D. One of my favorite illustrations she did is of a parent and a child on the beach looking at feeding pits in the mud. This is something you can actually see! As the tide goes out, you can see these whale-sized bite marks. I’d love to see them myself in person.
Maia: Me too.
Maia: What can I and other kids do to help gray whales?
Nora: Climate change and warming water are making it harder for these gray whales to find enough food in the Arctic. So one thing we can do is help stop climate change by taking public transportation instead of driving and advocating for clean energy. You can also keep a close eye out for gray whales when boating. They don’t have big dorsal fins so are harder to see than orcas. Do you have any suggestions for what kids could do?
Maia: We can pick up trash on the beach so it doesn’t get in the water and hurt the whales.
Nora: Great idea! Can I ask what you want to do for your job when you grow up?
Maia: I want to be a zoologist who studies animals in the wild.
Nora: That would be so cool. I hope someday when you’re a zoologist doing amazing field research, I can come and interview you.
Watch the full interview
About the Artist
Elly MacKay is an acclaimed paper artist and award-winning children’s bookmaker. She’s the illustrator of Twelve Daring Grays and also the author of a number of picture books, including In the Clouds and Red Sky at Night, and has illustrated, among others, The Enchanted Symphony by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, and A Meadow Mermaid and The Secret Fawn by Kallie George. Before pursuing a career in picture books, she taught in schools and was an educator in galleries. Elly lives in the winter kingdom of Owen Sound, Ontario.
Quick facts
- Gray whales have two blowholes, so when they exhale, the spout is heart-shaped.
- Gray whales migrate from Baja to the Arctic and back, covering over 10,000 miles annually. They swim just six miles per hour.
- Gray whales weigh as much as six school buses and are about as long as one.
- Gray whales are identified by markings on their bodies that are scars from things like barnacles and lice that were previously attached. They typically fall off in the warm waters of Baja, leaving the identifiable scar.
- The gray whale population is currently estimated at 13,000 individuals. Only about a dozen take the detour with more joining in recent years.
- The Sounders’ detour is 170 miles.
Cascadia Research Collective
- Scientists at Cascadia Research Collective have been studying the Sounders since they observed the first ones in this area in 1990.
- They document the returning individuals, their feeding locations, and health.
- This year, by late February 2026, several local favorites had already returned, including Little Patch, Gretchen, Tahoma, Azulao, Stardust, and Thidwick.
Are you a Sounder gray whale?
Take the Seattle Aquarium’s online quiz to find out!
Thank you to Maia, Nora Nickum, the Seattle Aquarium, Elly MacKay, and Candlewick Press for collaborating on this interview. We appreciate you sharing your space, art, and time.
Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure. Text Copyright © 2026 Nora Nickum. Illustrations Copyright © 2026 Elly MacKay. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA
