PORT TOWNSEND — The decorated warbonnet, a strange, full-lipped fish. Three tribal canoes, paddles at rest. A jellyfish in a sea of turquoise. Skagit Valley farmers with armloads of strawberries.
These are images in “We Are Puget Sound: Discovering and Rediscovering the Salish Sea,” the new photography exhibition inside Flagship Landing, 1001 Water St., in downtown Port Townsend.
The show, free to the public, is hosted by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, which will start moving into the Flagship building at Tyler and Water streets come spring.
“We Are Puget Sound” is a kind of preview — and, said marine science center executive director Janine Boire, it celebrates the Salish Sea’s community of living things.
The “we” in the title means everything shown in the photo exhibit and beyond, from fish to birds to fruit-bearing plants to humans, Boire said.
Brandon Cole’s photo of the decorated warbonnet, one of more than 260 Salish Sea fish species, is part of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s “We Are Puget Sound” exhibition in the Flagship Landing building in downtown Port Townsend. (photo by Brandon Cole)
The exhibit, open from noon to 3 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, shares its name with the “We Are Puget Sound” book published by Braided River, the conservation imprint of the nonprofit Mountaineers Books. The vivid paperback is available at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center Museum, 532 Battery Way, facing the beach at Fort Worden State Park.
The marine science center announced last August that it had purchased the Flagship Landing building for $2.2 million, and would be moving into it in phases. Meantime, the museum and gift shop at Fort Worden is open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays with admission by donation. The center’s aquarium on the fort’s pier is closed through March.
Later this month, the center will host its 10th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at Fort Worden. The outing from noon to 3 p.m. Jan. 17 will be about shoreline restoration: pulling invasive dune grass, with participants encouraged to bring their own tools or use some provided by the center. For more information and to RSVP, contact Erin Merklein at emerklein@ptmsc.org or 360-385-5582, ext. 113.
Also coming in January is the center’s online “Future of Oceans” lecture. Mindy Roberts of the Washington Environmental Council, co-presenter of the photo show; SeaDoc Society Science Director Joe Gaydos and Earthviews founder Brian Footen are the speakers in this program at 3 p.m. Jan. 23. The Zoom lecture is free, while viewers are asked to RSVP at www.ptmsc.org/onlinelearning.
The Port Townsend Marine Science Center, which will mark its 40th anniversary this year, will keep the “We Are Puget Sound” exhibit up during the first phase of its move downtown. The plan is for the gift shop and dry exhibits to move from the fort into Flagship Landing’s center space, while the photo show stays open at least through the end of March, Boire said.
More information about the center and its activities can be found at www.ptmsc.org, via its pages on Facebook and Instagram, or by phoning 360-385-5582, ext. 123.
________
Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz @peninsula dailynews.com.
