Huge, deadly sea creatures featured at Harbor History Museum exhibit

The Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor, Wash., has welcomed a new traveling exhibit on prehistoric life in the sea. Savage Ancient Seas features more than 14 complete specimens of large prehistoric marine creatures. The exhibit reconstructs the aquatic world of the late Cretaceous period more than 70 million years ago. It is a world of huge carnivorous marine reptiles with double-hinged jaws and teeth in the middle of their palates, gigantic flesh-eating fish big enough to swallow an adult human whole, flying reptiles with three-foot skulls, and the biggest sea turtles to have ever lived.

Many of the specimens are suspended from the museum's ceiling, while other parts of the exhibit include smaller specimens and hands-on learning stations. Large specimens include the largest aquatic reptile ever discovered, the 45-foot-long Tylosaurus. Other species include Megalodon, the largest of the sharks, and Archelon, a sea turtle whose shell was 17 feet in diameter.

The Harbor History Museum is collaborating with local marine and environmental organization Harbor WildWatch to create special exhibit programs for Savage Ancient Seas.  K-12 schools are invited for special tours and hands-on workshops. Lectures, workshops, and youth programming are also available. Savage Ancient Seas is open through July 14, 2013 at the Harbor History Museum, 4121 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor, Wash. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Columbia River Maritime Museum to dedicate new learning center

The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Ore., has transformed an historic 1925 railroad depot in a new learning center for traditional maritime and boatbuilding skills. The museum will dedicate the Barbey Maritime Center for Research and Industry in downtown Astoria on Friday, January 25.

The "Depot," as it's known, will house classes, workshops, and demonstrations of skills and trades relevant to the maritime culture of the Columbia River, according to a news release.  The center will also serve as the museum's "Regional Boat Documentation Center" and the site for a legacy business that will manufacture copper boat nails essential in the construction and repair of traditional Scandinavian-style lapstrake boats. These activities, tailored to serve adults and school children, will provide educational, cultural, and economic benefits to visitors and residents, the museum says.

The center is named for a prominent local family. The museum was founded in 1962 when Rolf Klep, a native of Astoria, returned to his birthplace after retiring from a successful career as graphic artist on the east coast. It is now a major visitor attraction in Astoria, which features the lightship Columbia and major exhibits.

Source: Columbia River Maritime Museum

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New exhibit in Seattle celebrates history of recreational fishing

Recreational fishing is important to Puget Sound's quality of life, as well as its economy, and Seattle's Center for Wooden Boats has mounted a new exhibit to celebrate its history. The exhibit, titled "Fish On!", examines a time when resorts, such as Cama Beach on Camano Island in central Puget Sound, and boathouses from Olympia to the San Juan Islands invited men, women, and children to venture on the water with a hand line, spoon, bamboo pole, and rented rowboat.

CWB’s new exhibit, which opens December 29, records the stories, preserves the small watercraft, and shares images of the “glory days” of recreational salmon fishing in the region. The story of the development of Puget Sound communities is told by exploring how people interact with the waterfront.

“Recreational salmon fishing in the early part of the last century was as much a cultural experience as a sport," said Betsy Davis, CWB executive director. "Businesses, like boathouses, resorts, boats shops and tackle manufactures, that serviced western Washington’s love affair with salmon sportfishing drove local economies and buoyed entire communities.”

The boathouses and resorts phenomenon peaked in the late 1950s. At nearly 200 rental operations, anglers gathered not just to rent boats, but to swap lies, compare fishing rigs, and make friends. Fishing was a social experience. By the mid-1960s private boat ownership, declining fish runs, more stringent regulations and televised sporting events combined to forever change the spirit of recreational salmon fishing in Puget Sound.

The new exhibit includes historic photographs of many well-known Puget Sound resorts and boathouses, the stories of the people who ran and visited them, as well as actual boats that were used at some locations. Resort boats will be available for public rides on Seattle's Lake Union, others will be on display or undergoing restorations in the CWB floating boat shop.

The exhibit was funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Ivar's Seafood Restaurants. CWB currently operates historic cabins at Cama Beach State Park. The exhibit is staged at the CWB Boathouse in Seattle and continues through the fall of 2013.

Source: Center for Wooden Boats

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