Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

Swimming and floating silently through the beautiful waters of the Salish Sea, microscopic plants called phytoplankton and animals called zooplankton form the basis of food chains leading up to orcas and to humans through salmon.  As microscopic plants, phytoplankton use the nutrients in the water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to grow until they are, well, eaten by zooplankton.  Different species of zooplankton can either stay small or can undergo a series of changes to become the larger animals we are more familiar with (including fish, mussels, crabs, worms, and barnacles to name just a few).  Come and prepare samples of live freshly collected plankton and observe these beautiful organisms on our microscopes.  Experts in plankton identification will be available to talk to you about what you see as you are looking at the samples!