Waterfront and Nature
Brackett’s Landing Dive Park is located just north of the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry Landing at the foot of Main Street. The Park includes more than 27 acres of tide and bottom lands of which approximately half have been developed with features and trails specifically for divers. The park itself is a series of man-made reef structures made from, concrete blocks, tractor tires, PVC pipes of various sizes, sunken navigation buoys, an old tree trunk, sunken boats & ships, old pieces of the 520 floating bridge and much much more, interspersed with sunken vessels in various states of decay, which together create an extensive artificial habitat for a wide variety of marine life. These features are connected by an extensive network of fixed guide ropes anchored to the bottom which make it easy for divers to get around the Park.
The original feature was a 325-foot De Lion Dry Dock, which was sunk in 1935 next to the ferry dock to act as a current buffer. It is an enormous structure that has created a beautiful artificial reef and attracted an abundance of sea life. Divers are able to swim in among the ribs of the structure. The sidewalls of the dry dock rise 34 feed above the inner deck, are 80 feet apart and 325 feet in length. During extreme low tides the top of the dry dock is visible from the surface. In 1972, a 94-foot tug, the Alitak, was placed northeast of the dry dock, and since 1977 other features have been added north including the ships Fossil in 1982, the Molly Brown in 1996, and the 70-foot Triumph in 1999. About two wooden boats per year have been sunk in the park because wooden boats last only about two years before lost to decay,
Protected from heavy coastal surges, the nutrient-rich inland waters of Washington support an abundance of sea life. Man-made features in the Underwater Park provide habitat for a stunning variety of life. These include: enormous lingcod, cabezons, spotted ratfish, various greenlings and rockfish, seaperch, gobys, sculpins, flounders, sole, eelpouts , Dungeness, red rock, kelp and hermit crabs, horse clams, geoducks, scallops, heart cockles, moon snail, giant pacific & red octopus, sea cucumbers, and numerous species of anemone, sea stars, urchin, nudibranchs, shrimp and seaweed.
www.ci.edmonds.wa.us/Discovery_programs_website/Underwater_park.html
Edmonds Marsh The Edmonds Marsh is one of the few urban saltwater estuaries remaining in the Puget Sound area. Before settlement this salt marsh occupied nearly 40 acres. Development has reduced this area to 22.5 acres. www.ci.edmonds.wa.us/Discovery_programs_website/Edmonds_Marsh.html
Willow Creek Hatchery is a salmon egg rearing facility and pond that produces 100,000 Coho salmon each year. It is on a 1 acre site at SR 104 & Pine Street and owned by the City of Edmonds. . Volunteers provide educational tours, day to day maintenance and upkeep of grounds and facilities. It is the largest hatchery operated by volunteers in the state of Washington under the supervision of the WA Department of Fish & Wildlife
The Edmonds Fishing Pier is located next to the Visitor Station at Olympic Beach just North of the Port of Edmonds marina. It is open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The pier is located in Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Area 9. Check the State Fish and Wildlife website for current regulations.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/
The Weather Center is a memorial to the late longtime Edmonds Port Commissioner and businessman, Harold “Babe” Bucklin. He was also a charter member of the Rotary Club of Edmonds, whose $5000 memorial contribution helped make the Center possible. The Center consists mainly of three computer screens. One provides real-time weather data including temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall and barometric pressure from an array of weather instruments mounted on the roof of the adjacent restaurant building. A second monitor has fresh content showcasing educational weather and environmental related videos. A third monitor provides forecast and other weather links through the Internet. The Port changes the posters and video presentations several times during the year. There is opportunity for interactive participation by the user.
www.portofedmonds.org/Weather_Center.htm