BY AVERY GOODSTINE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 10/16/2026
On a crisp fall morning, with fog shrouding a rocky shoreline, the ghostly outlines of kayakers, and curious seals breaching the surface, nearly 100 people rushed into the icy blue of Tacoma’s Owen Beach.
What might compel such a large group to plunge into an ocean at the beginning of October? Raising awareness for the southern resident orcas.
The Oct. 4 mass plunge was organized by sisters Emma and Annie Stafki to celebrate their 365th cold plunge in a row. Every day for a year, the sisters recorded themselves plunging and shared one fact about the southern resident orcas. They invited the community to take their final plunge with them as a celebration and a way to say “thanks” to their supporters.
Because of the accessibility of social media, the sisters wanted to use the platform to their advantage. Emma said it was also important that their advocacy be fun and encouraging, rather than harp on negativity.
“We’re trying to get people to care about the southern resident orcas and fall in love with them because our belief is that education leads to caring, and caring leads to action,” Emma said. “And so, our jump into the water every single day was a way to draw people in because of the ridiculousness of it. And then we sneak in an orca fact every single day. So, as people are learning more about the facts, then they’re going to hopefully care more about the orcas and then be willing to act for them.”
The Stafkis’ interest in orcas stemmed from one of Emma’s college projects in which she had to make a podcast about an untold story. After asking her sister for help, Emma said they had the perfect topic: the story of Hugo, an orca who was captured in Vaughn Bay near the Puget Sound in 1968.
“Our grandparents witnessed the capture, and it was just this tragic event that really stuck with them,” Emma said. “And we had heard that story growing up. And then when we were looking it up, there really wasn’t any information about Hugo online.”
After making the podcast, Emma and Annie turned it into a documentary, using their filmmaking hobby for a more serious project. “Echoes of the Sound” earned eight awards from various film festivals in 2024 and 2025. While not available on streaming platforms, a showing can be requested on myactionscount.org/work-gallery.
After the success of the documentary, Emma said there were lingering feelings that their advocacy for the southern resident orcas wasn’t finished yet, and people were still asking how they could help.
“The idea to cold plunge every day for a year came from seeing other advocates do daily action,” she said. “We thought that if we could do something like that, not only are we being consistent for an entire year, but now we’re showing up consistently for an entire year, and we’re keeping the southern resident orcas in the public eye for an entire year, every single day.”
The southern residents mostly live off the coast of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. There are three distinct southern resident pods: J, K, and L, making up a total population of just 76. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the southern residents have been listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act since 2005.
One of Emma’s favorite facts about the southern residents is that they have to learn their own languages, rather than it being instinctual. The same goes for their pod traditions and behaviors.
“It’s all learned behaviors, not instinctual,” Emma said. “So yeah, much like humans in that sense, we got to learn language and learn our family traditions and things like that. I think that’s really incredible. I also just think it’s incredible that they’re so deeply family oriented and they care about each other so much, and that the pods stay together for life, and they prey-share even though they are starving, they still share everything that they catch. So yeah, they’re just really incredible.”
Throughout their year of plunging, Emma and Annie have partnered with different organizations and have done multiple community plunges. For their final plunge, they partnered with South Sound Surfrider Foundation, a local chapter of an international organization that empowers Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and the southern Puget Sound to protect Washington coasts.
After their final plunge, Emma said they plan to take a little bit of time off social media before starting on their next awareness journey. She said since cold plunging has become their “thing,” they will definitely continue to do it, just not every day.
The sisters have also officially started their own nonprofit called My Actions Count. The mission of the organization is to “bridge the gap between caring and doing,” with an overall mission to make environmental action “more accessible, more social, and more rewarding so that anyone can become part of the solution,” states the website.
The website provides different kinds of activism that can be done in five minutes, 10 minutes, or are ongoing. The five minute actions they recommend are to follow a nonprofit on social media, share an action on your social media, sign up for a nonprofit newsletter, sign a petition, share an environmental resource, and many others.
Recommended 30 minute actions include doing a mini-cleanup, making a sustainable swap, or creating a social media post about an environmental issue you care about.
For ongoing action, they suggest participating in local volunteer opportunities with organizations such as 350 Seattle, the Puget Sound chapter of the American Cetacean Society, the South Sound Surfrider Foundation, and the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.
Keep up with Emma and Annie as they continue to raise awareness for the southern resident orcas and other local issues @two_girls_take_on_the_world on social media.
