Cindy R. Elliser — a marine mammalogist, associate director of the Salish Sea Institute at Western Washington University and founder and research director of Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) — is the featured speaker for the latest in Annie Crawley’s Environmental Speaker Series Thursday, Oct. 9 at the Edmonds Waterfront Center.

Elliser has spent more than a decade unlocking the mysteries of the harbor porpoise, the second smallest cetacean in the world, reaching just 5 to 5.5 feet in length and weighing about 150 pounds. Despite being one of the most abundant marine mammals in the Salish Sea, harbor porpoises are often overlooked because of their shy nature and fleeting surfacings. Through groundbreaking long-term research in Burrows Pass, off Fidalgo Island, PacMam has changed that story — showing that these animals and their calves regularly return to the same waters year after year, some for over a decade.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Waterfront Center banquet room. The cost is $7.50 and all seating is general admission. Walk-ins are also welcome as space allows.

Subtitles and closed captioning will be provided for attendees who are deaf and hard of hearing. The EWC also offers assistive listening devices available to check out or connect with your smart phone.

The Edmonds Waterfront Center is located at 220 Railroad Ave., Edmonds.