PORT ANGELES — From the surface, the Strait of Juan de Fuca may look at times like a desert — a wide, flat surface devoid of much life.
But like the desert, the monotony of the surface hides a bewildering variety of life, some of which doesn’t even look like anything most people would imagine to be from Earth.
The Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center brings those aliens from under the water, along with more recognizable species such as rock fish and jellyfish, up close and personal.
The small Feiro Marine Life Center, which is on City Pier in Port Angeles, is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission is $4 per adult, $1 for students age 4 to 17, and children 3 and younger are admitted free.
“We aren’t Seattle Aquarium,” said Tiffany Tate, staff naturalist for the marine life center. “You can get a closer look at things.”
She’s referring to such things as a tank with dozens of tiny white six-legged baby sea stars or a female crab who is protecting a mass of eggs on her abdomen.
“That kind of thing you might walk right past without ever noticing in Seattle Aquarium,” said volunteer Shirley Anderson.
Events on a small scale
Volunteer guides, called, docents, are familiar with what is happening in nearly every tank and can draw visitors’ attention to details and events taking place on a tiny scale, Anderson said.
Docents can also introduce new creatures to the center, such as a delicate-looking basket star, a fantastical pink and white sea star with dozens of long, curlicue arms.
The basket star is rarely seen, Tate said.
It lives at a depth of 600 to 1,300 feet.
It was caught accidentally by a fisherman and seems to be healthy in its current tank, she said.
Tate said many of the marine center’s animals were donated by fishermen, including a school of black rockfish, iridescent sides shimmering as they swim through a clear tube in their barbell-shaped tank.
Others were brought in by children who found the animals on the beach, and a few were specifically sought by divers for the marine center.
“People bring animals in buckets asking what it is,” Tate said.
Some tanks at the marine center are made for touching: shallow artificial tidepools that contain hardy sea stars, sea cucumbers and various snails and other shelled animals.
Others are less friendly, such as the sea urchins and stinging sea anemones, kept in their own tank.
Octavia the giant Pacific octopus was released back to the bay a few weeks ago to live out her life and breed, and a new young female has taken her place.
“Right now, she has three names,” Tate said.
New octopus no Octovia
They may decide on a single name eventually, but she is no Octavia, Tate said.
“She really, really doesn’t like me,” she said as the new octopus attacked the glass wall of her oversize aquarium when Tate tried to get her attention.
Tate and Octavia got along well, until just before the octopus was released.
An octopus is very much like a cat, Tate said, with similar intelligence and personality.
They like certain people but not others.
Some are more playful or shy or curious.
In about two weeks, the center will go on a hunt to find a baby octopus for the big tank as the current eight-armed resident moves into Octavia’s former home, an even larger tank in a quiet room in back, she said.
Bay water
All of the animals live in their natural waters.
Instead of installing expensive filters, water refrigeration units and constantly monitoring the salt and chemical balances of the water, the center simply uses an intake located near City Pier; the water passes through the tanks, then is emptied back into the Port Angeles Harbor.
“You could say an arm of the bay runs through this building,” Tate said. “Whatever is happening in the bay is happening in the tanks.”
That means the plankton and other tiny animals that live in the bay are brought into the tanks, often feeding the animals with fresh, live natural food.
Some animals don’t even need to be fed since the circulating water brings their food naturally.
‘Volunteer’ animals
Some of the creatures in the exhibits are “volunteers.” They came in through the water intakes, found a habitat they like and grow up in the tanks.
A cold-water sea sponge found its way into an eye-level tank and decided the area around the pipe that brought it there is a good place to be — as did three tiny sea anemones that have taken up residence with it.
A unique flat, round tank mounted on a wall contains a number of strange, alien-looking sea slugs with huge, bubble-like mouths.
The sea slugs repopulate the tank on their own, with at least two generations currently in the tank.
There are also three volunteers in the tank: a tiny, clear shrimp; a tiny fish with excellent skills; and a very small sea cucumber of some kind.
The sea cucumber, a brightly colored slug-like animal, is too small for marine center volunteers to identify its exact species, so Tate is waiting for it to grow to see what it is.
“If it’s a California sea cucumber, it can stay,” she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
