Short Trips: Marine Science Center explores the shallows and the deep of Port Townsend area waters

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Short Trips: Marine Science Center explores the shallows and the deep of Port Townsend area waters

Thursday, April 26, 2001

Photo of Hilda By HILDA ANDERSON
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Here in Puget Sound country, with water all around us, we really live in a marine environment. Yet, most of it is unseen except by scuba divers and tide-pool explorers.

Port Townsend's Marine Science Center at Fort Worden State Park offers an opportunity to learn about the teeming life that lies beneath the water's surface.

Originally built as a coastal defense fort at the beginning of the 20th century, the 443-acre preserve has been a state park for more than 25 years. Recycled buildings now house a performing arts theater, vacation rentals, youth hostel, conference facilities, administrative offices and an artillery museum.


	The Marine Science Center and the pier on which it stands were constructed in the early 1940s as part of the war expansion. Hilda Anderson photos

The Marine Science Center and the pier on which it stands were constructed in the early 1940s as part of the war expansion. The building served as a warehouse for incoming supplies, which were unloaded at the pier.

World War II soldiers wouldn't recognize the building today. Recently renovated as part of a $1.1 million capital campaign, its interior has been transformed into a 50-foot-long exhibit hall.

Stretching floor-to-ceiling along one wall is a mural that gives the sensation of being underwater and sets the mood. It starts out pale green at the shallow end, darkening as it gets deeper. You are underwater with ribbons of kelp and other seaweed and the sunlight filtering through.

The center focuses on marine life in the waters adjacent to the park -- the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet. Almost everything you see has been gathered locally. It's a fascinating collection.

Sea squirt colonies

New touch tanks with sandstonelike enclosures hold scores of animals -- sea anemones, orange-lipped scallops, burrowing cucumbers, colonies of sea squirts and nudibranchs.


	Naturalist Ben Ewing points out tidepool creatures to a young visitor. Hilda Anderson photos

"Youngsters know exactly what to do with the rocks that stick out from the tank walls," says Anne Murphy, the center's executive director. We watched as a preschooler climbed the rocks, sat on the ledge of a tank, put her hand into the water and gingerly explored.

Youngsters aren't the only ones. It's hard to resist touching anemones in greens and pinks and yellows, or the red-and-green ones called Christmas anemones. Sea urchins in reds and purples and greens look like giant pincushions. Pale pink starfish grow to 3 feet in diameter. Fat red sea cucumbers resemble pickles with warts.

There are also several closed tanks. One has rocks that looked, to us, like a miniature Stonehenge. Fish such as serrated-edge rockfish live here because they can hide under the ledges.

Pinto abalone live in another closed tank, their deep lavender shells colored by an encrusting plant on their surface. They're called pinto because they have variegated color, like a pinto pony.

Along one wall are little jewel tanks that showcase baby rock scallops and spindly-legged decorator crabs. The crabs' name comes from the fact that they break off seaweed and put it on the tops of their shells.

Mounted prints on the walls show the various animals in the tanks and help visitors identify them. Also displayed are seven fossils, some 25 million years old, that were collected on the Olympic Peninsula and are ancient relatives of modern scallops, snails, sea stars and crabs.

Underwater recycling

The center is unusual in that it uses live seaweed in the tanks. It's a labor-intensive job to replace it every few weeks, but it makes the tanks look natural and gives the animals habitat they are used to, a fresh supply of food and cover.

Recycling takes place even below the water's surface. An empty clam shell becomes a home for hundreds of snail eggs, each containing hundreds of larvae.

More than 150 volunteers work at the center and are on hand to answer questions. Each spring, there's a six-week Introduction to Marine Biology class, which trains volunteers, with follow-ups throughout the summer.

Staff volunteers push a button that empties the intertidal tank and causes the water to recede as it does at low tide. As the water level drops, some of the tank inhabitants, like the tidepool sculpins, stay under water. Others just cling to the sides, waiting for the water to return. Red blood starfish stand out against the gray rocky bottom. Barnacles close up while the tide is out to protect themselves from dehydrating. The complete cycle takes 14 minutes.

One wall is devoted to a forage-fish exhibit backdropped by a wall mural that shows where they spawn. Herring, sand lance and surf smelt provide food for everything from sockeye salmon to river otters and rhinoceros auklets. Next to a display of each fish is a small jar filled with sea water and beach material, and a magnifying glass to view it.

Adjacent to the exhibit hall is a classroom where live presentations are given on animals and habitats. Here, too, is a TV monitor showing the scene captured by an underwater camera -- verything from fish to seals to diving birds.

The science center has entered into a partnership with Washington State Parks and Seattle's Burke Museum for the renovation of another park building on the shore across from the center. When completed in August, it will be an education and interpretive center designed to explore the natural history of the Puget Sound area.

If you go...

DESTINATION: Port Townsend Marine Science Center at Fort Worden State Park.

HOURS/ADMISSION: Through June 14, Saturday and Sunday, noon-4 p.m.; after June 15, daily, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Monday. Cost: $3 for adults, $2 for children 12 and under, free for members.

DIRECTIONS: From Seattle, take the Washington State ferry to Bainbridge Island, then state Routes 305 and 3, north and west across the Hood Canal Bridge, then state Routes 104, 19 and 20 to Port Townsend, a driving distance of 50 miles. An alternate route is via the Washington State ferry from Edmonds to Kingston, where you pick up state Route 104.

FESTIVAL: The center's big annual event is the Low Tide Festival on July 21 on the beach.

CAMPS: Each summer the center offers hands-on summer camps for youngsters ages 9 to 13. Campers immerse themselves in marine themes through scientific study, creative activities and respectful play. The staff is composed of professional educators assisted by college-age and junior counselors.

This year there are overnight camps from July 15 to 21 and July 29 to Aug. 4. Cost is $515. There's also a day camp from July 23 to 27. Cost is $175.

INFORMATION: Marine Science Center, 360-385-5582; e-mail to ptmsc@olympus.net; on the Internet at www.olympus.net/ptmsc

Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce; 888-365-6978 on the Internet at www.ptguide.com

Copyright 2001, Barry and Hilda Anderson. Have questions about Northwest travel? Write to Hilda Anderson in care of Seattle P-I, 101 Elliott Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119. Or e-mail her at writersnw@olympus.net.

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