Port Townsend is one of the more popular destinations for pleasure boaters in Washington's inland waters. During boating season, the nearshore area off the downtown waterfront is heavily used as an anchorage. Dur ing festivals and events, the use can become very heavy with up to 50 vessels or more anchored off the town waterfront. A small number of the vessels end up anchoring in the eelgrass meadow that extends more or less continuously from the Port Townsend boat Haven to Point Hudson. The eelgrass beds along the downtown shoreline (from Point Hudson to Indian Point) vary from 175 ft. in width between Union Wharf and Point Hudson to 410 ft. between Indian Point and the Boat Haven. The average depth at the outer edge of these eelgrass beds is -13 ft at mean lower water.

In most cases, these vessels would only have to move offshore 50 to 100 ft. (2 to 3 boat lengths for a 30ft vessel) to eliminate the anchor impact. Damage to the eelgrass bed is observable as vessels pull up anchors weighted with plants and mud. In addition, as vessels swing on their anchors or drag them in strong winds, the chains and anchors can plow up plants as well.

As a side benefit, vessel safety is enhanced. Anchors hold poorly in vegetated bottom and are more prone to dragging. Port Townsend experiences major windshifts at any time of the year and a south easterly wind can quickly turn the anchorage into a lee shore. As a result, vessels do go up on the downtown shoreline with the potential to cause property damage and pollution incidents. By moving vessels out into slightly deeper water where the anchoring is better, these incidents should be reduced.

The MRC has undertaken extensive public outreach to the community as a whole, boater groups, Chamber of Commerce, businesses, the Port of Port Townsend, the City of Port Townsend, and the Board of County Commissioners. It was important to reach agreement that these would be Marker Buoys (not Moorage Buoys) and that the "No Anchor Zone" is an area that boaters may voluntarily respect.

The MRC designed and printed 2,000 brochures and 4 temporary educational signs. The two temporary signs (Union Wharf & City Dock) were posted in time for Wooden Boat Festival (WBF) weekend September 5-7, 2003. We produced an Eelgrass Project display at the MRC booth at the Jefferson County Fair, August 8-10.

The project is complementary to any future proposal for establishing mooring buoys or other types of mooring systems along the waterfront. The project is also complimentary to the Northwest Maritime Center's proposal to restore eelgrass under/around the planned pier.

This project achieves the following benchmarks:

1. Protect productive habitat.
2. Net productive habitat gain.
3. Coordinate scientific data.
4. Coordinate on an effective outreach and education effort.
5. Achieve a scientifically-based, regional system of Marine Protected Areas