Dock of the Month Club is a trust-based, community project designed to share specific dock locations along with the context and care required to visit them responsibly.

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There is no fee to participate.
Instead, participation itself is your agreement to the terms below.

This project exists to encourage careful observation, reduce accidental harm, and build a small community of people who understand that access without stewardship isn’t access at all.

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What Participation Means

Each month, the club focuses on one dock in Washington, drawn from the outer coast, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and most frequently, Puget Sound.

Participants receive a Dock Dossier that includes:

• Access context and dock type

• Tidal and seasonal considerations

• Fouling community structure

• Species that may be present (with no guarantees)

• Clear guidance on what not to do and why

Participation also means spending time at the dock on your own, if you’re able.

If you can’t make the main meetup or prefer a quieter visit, you’re encouraged to go solo. If you don’t want to go alone, we can help coordinate small side meetups of one or two people.

The goal is not to turn docks into events.
It’s to give you space to look, notice, and learn at your own pace.

This is not about maximizing sightings.
It’s about learning how to read a dock.

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Monthly Meetups

In addition to the monthly Dock Dossier, there will be one in-person meetup per month, typically on a Saturday morning.

A few important notes:

• We will announce meetup dates approximately three weeks in advance

• This cadence is intentional and realistic to what myself and co-organizers are able to sustain

• We're open to additional meetups hosted by others at different times, as long as stewardship expectations are upheld

If weather conditions are poor, access changes, or we’re asked to leave the dock, the meetup still happens. We’ll pivot to a nearby hangout spot, drink coffee, eat snacks, and nerd out about marine life instead.

Observation is the goal, but community matters too.

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Nudibranch Stewardship & Care

Nudibranchs and other fouling organisms are far more vulnerable than they appear.

Harm can occur through:

• Removal from original substrate

• Placement into containers or “tubs”

• Repositioning for photos

• Prolonged air exposure

• Improper return when the original orientation or prey is unknown

Participants are expected to:

• Observe and photograph organisms in place whenever possible

• Avoid handling unless they fully understand the risks and context

• Accept that not seeing a slug is still a successful visit

• Carefully read How to Handle Nudibranchs Safely

There are no forms to sign.
If you are participating, you are agreeing to these terms.

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On Sharing & Social Media

Dock of the Month Club materials and locations should not be shared on social media.

This is not about secrecy or exclusivity.

It’s about making sure that when dock locations are shared, stewardship travels with them. Coordinates alone, stripped of context, can do real damage.

Participants are welcome to:

• Share their experience without naming or pinning locations

• Talk publicly about stewardship and observation practices

• Direct interested people to Dock of the Month Club rather than reposting materials

We will also maintain an iNaturalist Dock of the Month Club Project.

iNaturalist is a safer place to share observations than social media because it preserves biological context and encourages learning. That said, it still comes with its own risks.

Please consider obscuring coordinates when submitting observations to the project, especially for sensitive species or sites. This helps balance data sharing with site protection and reduces the chance of unintentional harm.

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A Note on Trust & Community

This project works on trust, attention, and shared responsibility.

Dock of the Month Club is small on purpose.
Care scales better than crowds.

That said, this is not a fixed or finished thing.

We're open to iterations, changes, and evolution as the project grows. We are also happy to help support people who want to start their own Dock of the Month Club–style projects in their own communities. Local knowledge, done well, is always better than one person trying to cover everything.

I’m open to location suggestions, feedback, and ideas. I just ask for patience in return. We have limited time and limited resources, and this project is built around what can be realistically sustained.

The one thing we won’t compromise on is stewardship.

How we observe, how we handle (or don’t handle), and how we share information matters more than how many docks we cover or how many people participate.

If you’re here in good faith, curious, and willing to move at the pace of care, you’re part of the community.

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How to Join

Dock of the Month Club is intentionally small and runs on trust.

If you’re interested in participating, reach out to us via:

• Instagram (DMs are open), or

• Email either Luan  or Kō

• OR fill out the form below

Let us know a bit about:

• Your interest in docks or the intertidal

• Your familiarity with nudibranchs or fouling communities (no experience required)

• Whether you’re hoping to attend meetups or mostly visit docks on your own

We’ll share next steps from there.

There’s no fee to join. Participation itself is your agreement to the stewardship practices outlined above.