PORT TOWNSEND — The new digs are going fast but some “rooms”‘ are still available as the Port Townsend Marine Science Center prepares to open Saturday.
Director Anne Murphy has local divers and the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Department scouring the sea floor for fish and octopuses as she seeks to fill the exhibit tanks and tidepools at the completely redone center.
The center released nearly all of its marine animals last year as it prepared to renovate the pier building at Fort Worden State Park. Volunteers dispersed the creatures at 10 drop sites throughout the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, but one centenarian — a 12-inch wide anemone — was one of the sea animals which took up residence in the pilings beneath the center until the work was completed.
The exhibits are filled with plenty of inhabitants that wiggle, swim, suck and slip about. Murphy said approximately 300 species are dispersed among the numerous tidepool and standing tanks, though she expects to eventually have more than 500 species on display.
For more information about the Marine Science Center, call 385-5582 or visit its Web site at www.olympus.net/ptmsc.
This full report appears in the Friday/Saturday edition of the Peninsula Daily News, on sale throughout Clallam and Jefferson Counties.