PORT ANGELES — A new center dedicated to the marine environment off the Olympic coast was hailed Saturday as the next step in protecting marine resources.
“It’s been a long time in coming,” Carol Bernthal, superintendent of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, said at the dedication of the new Olympic Coast Discovery Center.
The ceremony was part of CoastFest, a day’s worth of events celebrating the sanctuary’s 10th anniversary.
About 100 people gathered in the afternoon sun outside the new facility, on the second floor of The Landing mall on the Port Angeles waterfront, as U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, and Daniel Basta, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Sanctuary Program, spoke about the sanctuary’s success since its founding.
Dicks was instrumental in securing funding for the sanctuary, and he pledged to continue fighting for money to support the program.
As a testament to the sanctuary’s benefits, Dicks recalled catching nine king salmon with his father and brother in a fishing trip to Neah Bay in 1954, then catching a 15-pound lingcod in the same fishing hole on a family trip last weekend.
“This is an incredible area that has been so protected,” he said.
Designated in 1994
The U.S. commerce secretary designated the sanctuary in 1994 with active support from Washington’s congressional delegation, the Makah, Quileute and Hoh tribes, and the Quinault Nation, whose lands all border the sanctuary.
Members of the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes arrived at nearby Hollywood Beach by canoe before Saturday’s ceremony.
They performed a Klallam welcome song and spoke of the sanctuary’s importance to coastal tribes.