Sanctuary Spotlight: Olympic Coast

Scenic view overlooking Ruby Beach in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. (Photo: Nick Zachar/NOAA).

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HOST: This is the NOAA Ocean Podcast. I'm Marissa Anderson. Rugged coastlines. Breaching orcas. Soaring seabirds. Hidden shipwrecks. Breathtaking natural beauty. I'm trying to paint a picture in your mind of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Located in Washington state and encompassing over 3,000 square miles, this special place is home to a rich abundance of marine mammals, seabirds and fish, diverse populations of kelp and algae, and invertebrate communities. In today's episode, we explore this particular sanctuary - and learn about its origins, its maritime culture and historical legacy, and ways you can help conserve this treasured area of the Pacific northwest. Let's dive right into our discussion with Chris Butler-Minor, community engagement specialist with NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, as she tells us about Olympic Coast.

The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as the trustee for a network of underwater parks encompassing more than 620,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington state to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. The network includes a system of 16 national marine sanctuaries and Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments.

BUTLER-MINOR: So national marine sanctuaries are part of a national network of areas of marine and Great Lake waters that are set aside for protection and enjoyment of natural and cultural resources now and into the future.

HOST: And what makes these places special? Why are they designated as marine sanctuaries?

BUTLER-MINOR: Like national parks, national marine sanctuaries are special places of immeasurable beauty and inspiration that provide shelter for marine life and are also places full of history.

HOST: So I'm very excited to talk with you today about the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Could you tell us where it's located and how big is it?

BUTLER-MINOR: It's big. Olympic Coast is one in a site of a network of 18 national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments. And this particular one, Olympic Coast, is located off the coast of Washington state and it covers nearly 3200 square miles. And much of it overlays the continental shelf, but it also includes portions of several deep submarine canyons. It's diverse.

HOST: Why was the sanctuary designated as one of these special places? How did that come to be?

BUTLER-MINOR: It's because it's one of the most productive and biologically diverse regions in the world's ocean and it's a stunningly beautiful place. It includes roughly 135 miles of largely undeveloped coastline and it extends from the shoreline out about 40 miles offshore. And then kind of comes back in as you head south and follows the continental shelf about 25 miles offshore. And one of the most unique features of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary is that it lies almost entirely within the usual and accustomed fishing and hunting areas of four federally recognized tribes with reserve treaty rights. And those are the Hoh Tribe, Makah Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and the Quinault Indian Nation.

HOST: Could you tell us about the different types of species, both wildlife and plant life, that call Olympic Coast home?

BUTLER-MINOR: It's home to a diverse community of algae and lush, healthy kelp beds that contain both species of canopy forming kelp, like the giant kelp and bull kelp, as well as true plants like surfgrass. And there are so many species of animals that use the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, either as year round residents or as visitors during certain times of the year. So to date we've documented 29 species of marine mammals. That's about a third of what exists globally and dozens of species of seabirds and fish. Plus, there's a wide variety of invertebrates, including crab, clams, and deep sea corals and sponges. And during exploration, we keep finding more.

HOST: This sounds like a wonderful spot that people would like to come see in person. How can people enjoy the sanctuary and what types of activities are permitted?

BUTLER-MINOR: There are so many ways to get into the sanctuary. There's beachwalking and tide pooling. Those are family favorites, along with hiking and backpacking along our rugged wilderness shoreline. There's wildlife watching from the beach. It can be amazing, especially if you have a pair of binoculars. And with a Washington state license, you can harvest fish and shellfish during the open seasons, and surveying and paddling are fun options. But it is a dynamic and cold environment, so prior experience and proper safety gear really is a must. Also, during summer months, you can drop in at our visitor center, which is located in Port Angeles and called the Olympic Coast Discovery Center, to learn even more ways about how to access and enjoy the sanctuary.

HOST: I'd like to dive into the history of the sanctuary. Could you tell us how it came to be?

BUTLER-MINOR: Well, one of the motivating factors for establishing the sanctuary was, unfortunately, a tragic disaster. This happened on the morning of June 22nd in 1991. The Tenyo Maru, it's a 365 foot long fish processing vessel, was slowly steaming along through a fog bank over Swiftsure Bank, which is about 25 miles northwest of Cape Flattery. And Cape Flattery is the northwest most point of the continental US. And so there was no wind. The seas were calm. And despite the fog, the ship's fog horn had been turned off. Well, into the dense fog came the Tuo Hai, a 610 foot bulk hauler traveling full speed, also with the fog horn off. And around 8:35 AM, the ships collided. And the smaller of the two ships, the Tenyo Maru, was ripped open and sank within minutes in about 540 feet of water. Amazingly, all but one of the 85 crew members were saved by nearby fishing vessels. The bad news is that approximately 450,000 gallons of oil and diesel aboard the vessel was released into the ocean. So this resulting oil slick was carried north into British Columbia and south along the coast of Washington and into parts of Oregon by the ocean currents, which devastated the region's marine life, especially seabird populations. Approximately 4,300 seabird carcasses of 30 different species were found along shoreline afterwards. Well, also around this time, there were plans for oil and gas development off the coast of Washington. So Tribal governments, local communities, other stakeholders and organizations were galvanized in an effort to protect the coastal resources here and nominated the area to become a national marine sanctuary. Yeah, so that's a very big focus of the sanctuary is to protect against oil spills.

HOST: Can you tell us more about the sanctuary's maritime cultural and historical legacy?

BUTLER-MINOR: The Olympic coast has sustained human communities that have lived here for at least 4,000 to 8,000 years and likely much longer. And the vibrant contemporary communities of the Hoh Tribe, Makah Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and the Quinault Indian Nation have forged inseverable ties to the ocean environment. They've been maintaining traditions of the past while navigating the challenges of the present and the future. The sanctuary also lies at the international border with Canada. And it's at the entrance to a major inland maritime highway and the inside passage to Alaska. And it also serves as the gateway to several historically significant and active ports. So the area has been used extensively for fishing, transport of goods to support inland Washington and transport of logging products from local markets. However, the combination of fierce weather, isolated and rocky shores and thriving maritime commerce have on many occasions made the Olympic coast graveyard for Tribal water crafts and western ships and their crews. And so as a result, over 200 lost vessels were last reported within the vicinity of Olympic coast national marine sanctuary and several shipwrecks can be found within the sanctuary boundaries.

HOST: That's really fascinating to hear. I'd like to touch on NOAA's role and mission in protecting these sanctuaries overall. Could you tell us a little about that?

BUTLER-MINOR: The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is a program or an office within NOAA and NOAA's mission is science, service and stewardship. And so that's to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean and coast to share that knowledge and information with others and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. So I think stewardship of coastal and marine resources and ecosystems has an obvious connection with sanctuaries. But the other components are also an important part of protecting sanctuaries, which in turn predict people and the environment.

So science at NOAA is the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the ocean and the atmosphere and related ecosystems. It's the integration of research and analysis, observations and monitoring and environmental modeling of complex issues like the causes and consequences of climate change.

Service is the communication of NOAA's research, data, information and knowledge for use by the nation's businesses, communities and in people's daily lives. Much of this through a variety of projects and interactions like education and outreach. So all three of these things align with the program focus of sanctuaries.

HOST: So you just shared with us about NOAA's mission in regards to sanctuaries, but could you now speak to any specific goals both in the short and long term specifically for the Olympic Coast Sanctuary?

BUTLER-MINOR: Our visitor center, the Olympic Coast Discovery Center, is open for the summer season with several new exhibits and we hope to engage even more visitors from near and far than last year, which was a record breaking year. We're also in our busy field season now, which includes deploying our oceanographic mooring array to add to our 25 year data set and conducting surveys of intertidal and kelp forest habitats to document the status and trends in marine invertebrates, fish and macro algae. We continue to dive into ocean acidification research and education through the ocean acidification Sentinel site with those partners to prepare resource managers and communities for changing ocean conditions. Lastly, in the near term, we're also in the process of updating our management plan and that will guide us into the future, setting our priorities for the next five to 10 years. And then speaking of the next five to 10 years, one of our long term goals is collaborating with Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, which is a local aquarium to develop a new visitor center, which is at least for now called the Marine Discovery Center as a prominent feature of the new Port Angeles Waterfront Center campus, which is home to a recently constructed performing arts center called the Field Arts and Event Hall. And it's also where the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe plans to develop a cultural center. The significance of this is that the sanctuary and Feiro have collaborated on the North Olympic Peninsula on education, stewardship and science for over 20 years. And this new facility will enable both of these entities to improve and expand on collaborative educational programs and achieve a greater impact than the sum of our respective parts.

HOST: It's really exciting to hear about the plans for the future. Could you tell us also about, say, current projects and initiatives that are taking place in the sanctuary and also are there ways for the public to be involved in supporting this special place?

BUTLER-MINOR: There are so many projects and activities underway, ranging from the ocean acidification, sentinel site management plan review, seafloor mapping, kelp force monitoring and protection to marine debris management. And some of the ways the public can get involved is by joining coastal cleanup efforts with CoastSavers and adding to seabird data sets through the coastal observation and seabird survey team (that's COASST with two S's). Those are beach bird surveys. And you can also train to be a docent or guide at the Olympic Coast Discovery Center to help share the importance of marine protected areas like the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

HOST: You had previously mentioned to us about the management plan that is currently being updated. Could you share with us a little bit more about that?

BUTLER-MINOR: We really want to have public input on setting our goals and priorities for the next decade. So after months of public meetings and collaboration with the Sanctuary's Advisory Council and the Intergovernmental Policy Council, which includes the four Coastal Treaty Tribes in the state of Washington. The draft management plan and the environmental assessment are nearly complete. And then once our program office has reviewed these draft documents, they'll be posted on the Federal Register or federal record for another round of public review and comment. Likely before the end of this calendar year. And then once those documents are finalized, the revised sanctuary management plan will help steer the sanctuary's future, particularly over the next five to 10 years. We frequently do a check in at five years.

HOST: I understand that the sanctuary is going to be celebrating a very special milestone birthday.

BUTLER-MINOR: Yes, we are. It's been nearly 30 years since our designation as the National Marine Sanctuary. And we are super excited.

HOST: Since the establishment of the sanctuary 30 years ago, have you seen any trends or major changes over that time period?

BUTLER-MINOR: Yeah, so fortunately, there are some sanctuary resources that have remained in a relatively good state, but other resources have experienced significant changes and in some cases, declines. So status and trend information related to the sanctuary is six major habitats in terms of water quality, living marine resources, maritime heritage resources, and ecosystem services, or the benefits that humans derive from the sanctuary are discussed in detail in our most recent sanctuary condition report, which covers a period between 2008 and 2019. And so, for example, our condition report found that while the spatial extent of kelp forests on the Olympic Coast has remained relatively stable over time, the increasing frequency and severity of marine heat waves are likely to continue to stress these important habitats and the species that rely on them. In some cases, we found mixed trends, where some marine species like intertidal mussels, sea otters, and dungeness crab are doing okay, while other populations such as pinto abalone and sunflower sea stars have declined precipitously. There's also declining trends in water quality and changes to ocean chemistry caused by climate change, among the most concerning changes documented in the condition report. For instance, increasing ocean temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels, and ocean acidification are particularly concerning. And they've prompted increased research focus, as well as prompting the designation in 2019 of the sanctuary as a sentinel site for ocean acidification. That basically means really focusing research and outreach on the causes and effects of ocean acidification.

HOST: And with these changes, that you've seen over the past 30 years, would you say that these contribute to particular challenges or pressures that the sanctuary faces, say in regards to the resources and/or the wildlife?

BUTLER-MINOR: We are concerned about changes in ocean conditions generally, but especially ocean acidification. Lower pH has implications for a variety of species, especially shellfish and shell-forming invertebrates, because these are pretty basic parts and important parts of the food web. Other impacts that affect water quality across all sanctuary habitats include marine heat waves and low oxygen conditions, which are becoming more frequent and intense.

HOST: I know we had touched on this earlier, but are there other ways that the public can get involved with Olympic Coast or any of the sanctuaries?

BUTLER-MINOR: Yes, they can. So our home office recently posted an article entitled "Eight Ways to Support Marine Sanctuaries During National Ocean Month." And that's on the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries website. And it provides several ideas for how the public can help. They don't have to be limited to National Ocean Month, which was June, by the way. These include visiting national marine sanctuaries, learning about and speaking up for our ocean, providing public input to federal government on protection of the ocean, joining citizen science projects, and taking individual action to protect watersheds and ocean areas.

And people can also interact with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, which is one of the largest organizations created specifically to support national marine sanctuaries, watersheds, and ocean areas.

Another way that you can participate in sanctuaries or get to know them a little bit better is by participating in our annual "Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest." And so that's every year between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. We encourage people to go out, visit sanctuaries, take amazing photographs, and then submit them for consideration to be published in our Earth Is Blue magazine. And so these can be photos of sunsets or other scenic shots or life, you know, fish, birds, marine mammals. It can be recreation or even photos of stewardship activities that you're participating in, like, rain debris cleanups, for instance. And it's a really great opportunity not only to show your great photography skills, but afterwards, when you get to go back and look at the photos that are published in Earth Is Blue, you can see just how amazing each one of these sanctuaries really is.

HOST: This has been the NOAA Ocean Podcast. Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and our other sanctuaries, be sure to check out our show notes. Never miss an episode by subscribing to us on your favorite podcast player.

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