Port Townsend Marine Science Center

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center (ptmsc) achieves its mission by engaging with the public through the aquarium, museum, gallery, and traveling exhibits it curates, participating in collaborative citizen Science and restoration projects, coordinating community sustainability initiatives, providing a suite of k-12 education experiences and resources, and hosting an annual calendar of public programs for the community and online. Overall, ptmsc served more than 38,000 people in 2023, a growth of over 60% from 2022.in august, 2023, ptmsc led an ambitious community collaboration to install an exhibit featuring a 42' beautifully articulated gray whale skeleton on union wharf in downtown Port Townsend. Summer volunteers met with over 2,000 visitors to interpret the spectacular exhibit and raise awareness about the gray whale population and the health of the salish sea. Aquarium and museum exhibits in fort worden state park welcomed 12,386 visitors in 2023. Over 12,000 people visited the downtown location at flagship landing where, throughout the year, the gallery hosted several original exhibits including the walk-through bull kelp exhibit, orca: shared waters, shared home, and the workspace/exhibit fossil lab. Additionally, visitors participated in unique programming such as microscope fridays, and an elephant seal articulation experience, and found marine-themed books, crafts, and artwork by local artists in the store. School programs for prek to college students grew in 2023. A total of 1,509 students participated in indoor labs and classes, and outdoor field experiences. Staff and education program volunteers also brought live programming and collections resources to area schools who were unable to arrange field trips. Critical citizen Science programs such as the Marine mammal stranding network, sound toxins, and intertidal monitoring attracted volunteers and supporters. Additionally, ptmsc was contracted to train jefferson and clallam county community members to identify and report invasive green crabs along local shorelines. Volunteers also participated in successfully relocating sealife for the point hudson marina jetty improvement project. Sustainability initiatives such as repair events and beach clean ups, as well as wildlife cruises, low tide walks and summer camps filled to capacity. The future of oceans lecture series hosted 8 in-person presentations. There were over 7,000 participants in these and other public programs. When not open to the public, the aquarium facilities also support ongoing conservation and restoration efforts such as the larval dungeness crab research project and the pinto abalone restoration project.