Townsend Bay Dive Serving the Community

2008 - Students Monitor Eelgrass Restoration Site

Working with scientists from Battelle, local high school students are studying the health and recovery of an eelgrass bed on the Port Townsend waterfront. This underwater habitat surrounds the Northwest Maritime Center's eelgrass friendly demonstration dock, designed with the goal of casting less shade on the plants growing below it. In May, 2004, when the renovation was completed, volunteers from the community, including some of these students, helped scientists plant eelgrass in places the old dock had shaded.

Students from Port Townsend High School and the Chimacum Pi program are now monitoring how well the new dock is working. They're measuring how much sunlight reaches the eelgrass below the dock at different times of the year, and working with volunteer diver Grant Ausk, who is helping photograph the replanted area to help students watch for signs of recovery. They're also monitoring other parts of this habitat-the temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen of the water, the kinds of plankton that move through the area from season to season, and even birds seen in the area. These data are helping the students and the Battelle scientists determine how well the eelgrass bed is functioning as a habitat. Read More >>

2007

Grant Ausk works with the students of Gray Wolf to strengthen their confidence through dive classes and snorkeling. Students had opportunities to learn the dive business as well. Working with Grant has greatly increased several of the students self esteem and well being. Gray Wolf Ranch provides an intermediate-care residential recovery program. Our park-like campus is located fifty miles northwest of Seattle on Washington's scenic Olympic Peninsula. Sited on 20 wooded acres, Gray Wolf provides a transitional living environment for up to 28 young men between the ages of 14 and 25 in early recovery from substance abuse.

Oct. 2006 - Fort Worden gets Mapped

In August, divemaster-in-training LeAnn Poirier recruited other divers to help her map and mark the artificial reef at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Wash. Poirier and many other area divers hope the site will be designated as an underwater park someday. Over time, old tires, pilings and cement blocks have sheltered a wild variety of marine. Mapping an underwater area is a required task in divemaster training but Poirier’s work at Fort Worden was far beyond her certification requirements. She and others, including Grant Ausk, owner of Townsend Bay Dive in Port Townsend, hope they can draw more divers to the Port Townsend area.

Feb. 2006 - Port Townsend Bay ...

...will have new buoys For race courses soon Four new turning buoys will be tethered to permanent anchors in Port Townsend Bay for sailing races soon, through the courtesy of donations. All the equipment has been given to the Port Townsend Sail-ing Association by West Marine, and Grant Ausk of Townsend Bay Dive Shop has agreed to set the anchors and attach the lines and buoys without charge. This good news has been announced by Larry Eifert, who has arranged for the donations and says the project can get start-ed when permits are obtained. Don D’Alessandro has taken on the permit acquisition. Missy Welch, who handles Western Regional Events for West Marine, said the gear in- cludes four 20-inch round buoys with auger screw anchors, line, chain and all the necessary fit-tings, a value of some $750. “We are always happy to par-ticipate in the communities in which we live and do business,” she says. “We love to make boat-ing more fun... Read More >>