PORT ANGELES — The newest creations on the Fish on the Fence display are a memorial.
Sea stars in ceramic and metal are decorating the fence between the Feiro Marine Life Center and The Landing mall in a display dedicated to the loss of millions of sea stars in the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The artwork went up on the waterfront fence at the mouth of Peabody Creek before tonight’s seventh annual Fish on the Fence Gala.
The dinner and auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. today at the Red Lion Hotel, but anyone who doesn’t already have one of the $65 tickets should begin planning for next year.
Tickets to attend Fish on the Fence were sold out Tuesday, said Rachele Brown, program coordinator for Feiro Marine Life Center.
“It’s going to be bigger than it’s ever been,” she said.
There were 172 tickets sold for the gala, whereas in past years, 130 was typical, she said.
The color on the fence evokes those missing from Feiro’s tanks at the center on City Pier, where sea star wasting disease has decimated the ochre star population from about 50 to a handful, and eliminated the giant sunflower stars.
About 50 ceramic and metal stars cover two fence panels in the purples and pinks, oranges and yellows of the ochre stars that were among the hardest-hit of sea star species.
Staff and volunteers have spent many hours over the past year tracking sea star wasting syndrome and found that the disease, believed to be caused by a densovirus, has obliterated 98 percent of sea stars in the Freshwater Bay area.
“So many of our sea stars have disappeared from our coast,” Brown said.
The pathogen causes sea stars to “melt” into a white goo and has been recorded on the Pacific Coast since 1972.
In the current outbreak, the worst on record, the infection has spread among Pacific Coast sea stars from Alaska to Mexico.
Commercial arts students at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center and welding students at Peninsula College created sea stars artwork, while local elementary-school-age students created smaller sea stars, along with some jellyfish and crab.
This year’s artwork was added to collections created over the past seven years.
Brown said many of the older artistic sea life figures are weathered and that the collection needs to be reorganized and cleaned up.
This year’s new art will be in a place of honor on the fence, where they are easily seen.
A special feature this year at the gala is an entire table for former students of Port Angeles High School science teacher Arthur D. Feiro, who led the effort to construct the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Laboratory on city property. It opened in November 1981.
Feiro worked with along with Will Wirt and a group of supporters to build the laboratory, which was later renamed a marine life center.
Feiro died in 1982 soon after the center opened,
The small laboratory he spearheaded has since grown into a marine science educational center, one of two on the North Olympic Peninsula, which also is home to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Among his former students will be Craig Baker, who will share stories of how Feiro influenced his direction in life.
The center maintains partnerships with area school districts.
For the past eight years, the Feiro center has provided every fourth- and fifth-grade student in Port Angeles with free marine science education programs aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.
In the past five years, students from the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center’s natural resources program have worked on real-data collection and research projects at Feiro.
Some of the natural resources students who have worked with at the Feiro center are going to be featured at this year’s Fish on the Fence event.
Kayla McLaughlin, who was a student in the skills center’s natural resources program and is now at the University of Washington studying science, will be a guest speaker.
McLaughlin spent two years in the program working with Feiro, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Streamkeepers of Clallam County and Olympic National Park.
The local internship led directly to her getting a laboratory job at the university.
A current skills center science student will be honored during the dinner.
Emily Larson of Sequim was named Feiro’s 2015 Science Student of the Year.
In the past year, Emily has completed volunteer training and represented the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge at community events, conducted Dungeness Spit beach surveys, volunteered as an interpretive ranger staffing the Olympic National Park Visitor Center and completed a paid summer marine debris internship involving educating the public and planning community beach cleanup events for the Clallam County Marine Resources Committee.
She has also completed salmon restoration projects, written blog posts, mentored other students, planned events and participated in the Citizen Action Training School program for the North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
During the dinner, live and silent auctions will be held to raise money to support Feiro educational programs.
Among the auction items will be a private lunch for two with U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
Other auction items are a sightseeing flight up the Elwha River Valley with Rite Brothers Aviation and a copper salmon sculpture by local artist Clark Mundy.
For more information about the Feiro Marine Life Center, visit www.feiromarinelifecenter.org.
For more information about the natural resources program, phone Dan Lieberman, natural resources instructor, at 360-565-1892 or email dlieberman@portangelesschools.org.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.