Tides of March

The Annual Tides of March Auction is one of the highlights of the year for us at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC). It's an intense amount of hard work — coordinating logistics, soliciting donations from local businesses and community members, and organizing volunteers — but always deeply worth it.

On Saturday March 12, all those months of hard work finally paid off. I love the excitement that fills the air as the final preparations are completed; the last sea-star napkin is set just right, the stage lights are up and ready, and the guests begin funneling through the doors in their own whirl of exhilaration towards the registration table.

Greeting old friends I haven't seen in a while, with bright smiles and warm hugs, is one of the best parts of working at the Marine Science Center. The people make this event what it is — the people who give their time and money to support their values, showing their dedication to our mission of inspiring conservation of the Salish Sea — they are the ones who inspire me.

This year was simply amazing. It was our second year coming back "home" to the Fort Worden Commons, which continues to prove itself the right choice. Guests were delighted with a scrumptious dinner of smoked salmon pasta or a mushroom lentil dish created by Fort Worden Catering.

The items up for bid ranged from trips to the Caribbean and bottles of wine donated by our Board Members, to beautiful handcrafted items such as quilts and jewelry.

The room was decorated beautifully with green and blue ceiling lights, fishbowl centerpieces with floating candles, and napkins folded into the shape of sea stars, transforming the room into an "Undersea Spree."

Oh, and the desserts! They were wonderful! The Dessert Dash was a mad rush to get the "best" desserts even though every single one was incredible. (The chocolate raspberry cheesecake was my personal favorite.)

Continuing the tradition, our AmeriCorps team also developed an awesome opening skit to kick-off the live auction. In this skit, they transformed themselves into creatures from the Marine Exhibit, and wanting to experience freedom, they escaped from the tanks away from the AmeriCorps members (as portrayed by yours truly, and Maintenance Coordinator, Phil Dinsmore), only to discover their dream was not as they hoped. The Salish Sea was filled with toxic chemicals, plastics, and Canadian poop (eh?), and they decided their rightful place was back in the exhibit to educate visitors about protecting the environment.

The Make-a-Difference portion of the evening is always a humbling, heartfelt experience, in which two outstanding youth members of our community share stories of their involvement with PTMSC. Linnea Harrington, grand-niece of the late Eric Harrington, shined as she told the story of her parents meeting at PTMSC, forming her connection and desire to learn right there from the start. And Tusker Behrenfeld delighted us with humorous stories of his love for grunt sculpins and seeing orcas up close.

Stories like theirs are the reasons we do what we do; these children are the future, and they have the power to make change. That night, as part of Make-a-Difference, we raised an astonishing $60,000 to continue supporting our education programs (a 50% increase over last year!). Those two students deserved their standing ovation!

Overall, it was an incredible night. The combined efforts of all our amazing staff and volunteers helped us make this year a record-breaking success. Our grand total reached $126,000, shattering our previous record by 14%! Wow!

We could not have done it without the support of our incredible PTMSC community. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to our dedicated volunteers (in no particular order):
Pete & Alexandra ter Horst, Alan Rammer, Anne Murphy, Ashley MacKenzie, Kate Marshall, Lucas Hart, Wilma Hackman, Carla Vander Ven, Betty Petrie, Jan Mier, Sally Davis, Claude Manning, Davis Fogerty, Megan Veley, Diane Baxter, Wendy Nordquist, Judy D'Amore, Gabriele Sanchez, Kateri Schmerler, Nan Toby Tyrell, Katherine Jensen, Rob Wamstad, Dan & Soozie Darrow, Megan Addison, Nathan Trimble, Noreen Parks, Patrick Colleran, Sue Long, Tina Scheufler, Nancy Jamieson, Linda Heuertz, Jenifer DeWolf, Mallory Wilmot, Linda Martin, and Gordon James.

Check out all the photos from the evening on Flickr!

THANK YOU!

Photos by Amy Johnson 

—

AMY JOHNSON is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. Interested in volunteering? Learn how you can get involved!

Gone Green? Go Blue!

In a clamshell…what is Go Blue?
Go Blue is a campaign led by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center to raise awareness and inspire collective action to improve the health of the Salish Sea.

  

What exactly does it mean to Go Blue?
Going Blue is about making ocean health a priority--understanding how the ocean sustains our lives and doing something to take care of it. Together. It means building on what we already do as individuals to live Green and taking it to the next level by engaging in collective solutions for community-wide marine conservation. As a coastal community we have a responsibility to be stewards of our marine environment and an opportunity to be leaders. The Go Blue endeavor dives deeper into the global issue of ocean health, reveals the human impact of climate change, waste, and toxics on marine marine ecosystems, and provides choices for what we can do as a community to address it in our own backyard.

Wendy Feltham photo

 Examples of Go Blue Collective Actions:
· Learn the 7 principles of Ocean Literacy and spread the word
· Google ‘dirty dozen chemicals’ and find out how to avoid them
· Support locally grown organic food
· Support stores that sell products with little or no packaging
· Support stores that promote the use of re-usable shopping bags
· Ask local media to cover more environmental news
· Ask cosmetic companies to use fewer toxics
· Ask Consumer Reports to include environmental impacts in product ratings
· Plant a city rain garden and stop 90% of the pollutants from stormwater runoff
· Join 3 friends biking 5 miles twice a week instead of driving and reduce 1 ton of CO2 emissions in a year
· Start a “stuff exchange” with friends or join groups like The Freecycle Network freecycle.org or Buy Nothing buynothingproject.org
· Post links about ocean health on your Facebook page
· Support federal and state policies and lawmakers who work to protect the ocean environment

Port Townsend Farmer's Market photo

How Does the Ocean Sustain Us?
Humans and the ocean are inextricably linked. The ocean moderates the Earth’s climate; influences weather patterns, and affects human health. It supplies 85% of Earth’s rainfall through evaporation and is our greatest source of oxygen thanks to tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton that live near the ocean surface. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, more than 90% of life on Earth is aquatic, and nearly half of the world's human population lives within 50 miles of a coastline. From the ocean we acquire food, medicine, minerals, and energy resources. The ocean provides jobs, supports our economy, and serves as a highway for transportation of goods and people. The ocean is a constant source of inspiration, recreation, rejuvenation and discovery. The bottom line is we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the ocean. It takes care of us. So when we make the ocean sick, it’s our responsibility to make it right.

How is ocean health adversely impacted by human activities?
Climate change – Since the Industrial Revolution around 1750, burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This contributes substantially to climate change by trapping excessive heat in the atmosphere. The ocean has absorbed 50% of the carbon dioxide from these emissions and 80% of the heat added to the atmosphere by climate change. The major effects on the ocean have been increasing water temperatures and ocean acidification. Rising ocean temperatures can directly impact development, age of sexual maturity, timing of spawning, growth, and survival of most fish and cephalopods such as octopus and squid. Ocean acidification makes survival difficult for organisms that have chalky shells, which are harder to form in acidic conditions. Species directly affected include many plankton, sea urchins, scallops and clams and the stress on their populations affects the entire food web.

Pollution & Waste – Garbage, plastics, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, as well as toxic chemicals found in pharmaceutical, industrial, household, and personal care products enter the ocean waters from deliberate dumping, untreated household sewage, stormwater run-off and the atmosphere. These pollutants make their way into the marine food web and ultimately reach humans.

Dive deeper to discover life in the Salish Sea and what we as a community can do to ensure its health for generations to come. For more information visit our exhibits at Fort Worden State Park
 in Port Townsend WA.

Thank You!

This is one big thank you to all of the community members, sponsors, donors, supporters, volunteers, restaurants, and staff that made our annual Tides of March auction a success! We grossed $60,000, which is quite a number, especially in these times. We couldn't have done it without the generosity of so many people and, if you were helping in any way, now's the time to pat yourself on the back. It's wonderful to know that our community supports the efforts and goals of PTMSC, and we look forward to the next year with much excitement!

If you couldn't make it, Larry Kilburn was on the scene taking photos, which are now up on his site. If you did make it, maybe you can find yourself in some of his photos.

Here's to another year of excellent marine education in our communities and beyond!