Hi folks –
Normally I would write this kind of post in the third person coming from the organization, but I think it’s important that I step out front and re-state a few things for the record. You may have seen some news articles this morning from our local news station, KONP, and Seattle-area news station, KUOW, describing localized federal impacts to NOAA. I am quoted accurately in both articles.
Feiro has been working on securing a new long-term home ever since it became a not-for-profit in 2008. Previously operated by Peninsula College, our current building was purpose-built as a lab and classroom location. It opened on weekends and summers thanks to the dedicated effort of hundreds of volunteers under the Friends of the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Lab Foundation. When the College ended its Fisheries degree program, more community volunteers stepped forward to plan the Feiro’s next life as a stand-alone non-profit. The City of Port Angeles continues to own the building we currently occupy.
Over the last ten years, even more hundreds of volunteers have maintained and improved current exhibits, provided educational experiences, and collected citizen science data. We currently have over 60 operations volunteers, and last year saw nearly 22,000 guests in our exhibits and programs. Through financial accessibility programs sponsored by Kitsap Bank and the Dungeness Crab Festival more than 4,000 guests entered Feiro for free last year. Our program participants, guests, volunteers and staff members come from different backgrounds and have different learning needs. Our goal is always to meet each learner’s needs, whether that be partnering with local teachers to customize their class experience, learning and planning for summer campers’ interests when creating our activity plans, or working with job coaches and occupational therapists to offer useful volunteer opportunities.
The Marine Discovery Center will make our community stronger and more resilient. With NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary’s partnership we have been able to plan for a center that will:
1) still be 100% owned and operated by a local non-profit organization (that’s Feiro),
2) expand our programs and learning experiences 300% (instead of one camp per week, we can have three camps per week, making sure your child has a spot!),
3) hire EIGHT new FULL-TIME with BENEFITS staff members contributing to local employment,
4) increase our annual participants at a minimum to 75,000, offering visitors to the Olympic Peninsula a good reason to stay one more night, which drives lodging, food, store and gas sales (and benefits us in local sales tax collection),
AND
5) increase the work we do in citizen science and conservation research – not only maintaining core programs like Sound Toxins harmful algal bloom monitoring and serving as the responding entity for marine mammal stranding on more than 80 miles of the North Olympic Coast, but GROWING our capacity to conduct additional research studies on local species we love, like pinto abalone and tufted puffins.
Without this federal investment, to be frank, Feiro Marine Life Center does not have a long-term future. The building we occupy is end of life, and no financial models exist to keep our modest and aged facility in business without a new home.
I came to Port Angeles to help make this new building a reality. Over the last decade, I have talked to literally thousands of people who think this federal investment is a good one. The staff at the Marine Sanctuary care a great deal about their public service and public value, and in collaborating, partnering, and bringing the benefit of ongoing ocean science and monitoring to Clallam County residents, whose lives and livelihoods depend on the health of our marine environment. The Marine Discovery Center will showcase how public investment in science, policy and management assist our community. It will showcase how multiple entities on the Peninsula rely on collaboration to address the challenges we face, and to protect the species we love. It will continue to live out the mission to connect community and environment by providing local marine and watershed learning experiences and increasing awareness of how closely connected and interdependent we are.
We are moving rapidly with care and concern not only for the investment we all made as federal tax payers, but also for the private investments which have raised nearly $3M to date in our community alone. I am one of the project’s private donors, as is every single Board member of Feiro. Collectively we will bring this vision to reality.
With appreciation,
Melissa Williams
Executive Director
News links:
https://www.myclallamcounty.com/2025/03/13/noaas-marine-sanctuary-center-office-in-port-angeles-the-latest-victim-of-doge-cuts/
https://www.kuow.org/stories/more-cuts-coming-to-oceans-agency-olympic-coast-sanctuary
