Two youngsters touch the marine life in the hands-on tidepools found at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center Marine Exhibit. Photo courtesy of Christina Pivarnik
BE CONNECTED TO YOUR PLANET Port Townsend Marine Science Center: Located in Fort Worden State Park, the center is at 532 Battery Way, on the beach. Exhibit hours vary throughout the year, so check the website at www.ptmsc. org or call 360-385-5582. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for youths. Sound Experience: To be a visitor, volunteer, teacher or liveaboard adventurer on the schooner Adventuress, visit www. soundexp.org. Quilcene National Fish Hatchery: Located 2 miles south of Quilcene along Highway 101, the hatchery is open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Hours may change seasonally. Call 360-765-3334.
World of water Getting in touch with life in Jefferson County always brings you to the water. Two organizations actively put the public in contact with marine science: The 26-year-old Port Townsend Marine Science Center at Fort Worden State Park, and Sound Experience, which operates aboard the schooner Adventuress. A third location, the Quilcene National Fish Hatchery, offers a look at how salmon populations are enhanced. This hatch-
82 2008 Getaway The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
ery raises three of the five species of Pacific salmon: chinook, chum and silver. In Port Townsend, the science center is a small treasure that gives kids of all ages a chance to touch, smell, hear and see marine life in Puget Sound. Two exhibits invite visitors and locals alike to explore and learn about our coastal environment. On the pier, the Marine Exhibit offers tidepools and aquaria featuring marine plants and sea creatures from the waters of Port Townsend
Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The tidepools are filled with marine life you can touch, such as the nubby back of a sea star or the squishy insides of a sea urchin. The center’s Natural History Exhibit features the Northern Puget Sound shoreline, its dramatic geologic history, and the birds and mammals that visit our bluffs and beaches. A focus for the center this year is on how plastics impact the marine world. Out on the water, check out the Adventuress, a gaffrigged, 94-year-old, 136-foot wooden schooner homeported in Port Townsend and operated by Sound Experience. Anyone who’s spent some time gazing out toward Puget Sound will recognize the Adventuress silhouette – her clean lines, two masts with jauntily jutting gaffs, and impressive 5,000-plus square feet of sail. But unless you’ve actually been aboard Adventuress for a public sail or overnight trip, you might be surprised by what goes on when the schooner is under sail. Students learn about plankton, watersheds, marine mammals and resource conservation. While the environmental sciences form the foundational core of Adventuress classes, onboard learning isn’t limited to science. It includes history, sailing, courage – oh, and the entire planet too. So touch it, ride it, smell it – and enjoy Puget Sound.