Real-Time Data on Olympic Coast Helps Fishers Make Critical Decisions
By Rachel Plunkett
September 15, 2026
For fishers along the Olympic Coast, a bad day on the water can mean much more than rough seas. It can mean burning thousands of dollars in fuel and bait, pulling weak or dead crab, missing a trip, losing gear, or watching the market price drop because crab quality has changed. Real-time information about ocean conditions can help fishers make better decisions before they leave the dock.
"I run a 50-foot Dungeness crab day boat that costs about $2,500 a day to run with bait, fuel, and groceries," said Jim Darmiento, Quinault Ocean Committee chairman and a commercial fisherman. "In the opener on a regular year, we can deliver 10,000 pounds a trip at $4 per pound [of Dungeness crab], so if we get line in the propeller and have to get towed or limp in and miss a trip, we can lose out on $40,000."
Those numbers add up quickly in a place where fishing is more than a job. For coastal communities along the Olympic Peninsula, fisheries support families, local economies, food systems, and treaty-reserved rights that have connected tribal nations to these waters since time immemorial.
But some of the most important ocean conditions affecting fishers are invisible from the deck of a boat. A calm surface can hide low oxygen near the seafloor, and deeper currents can shift and behave differently than surface currents.
In Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, two seasonal oceanographic moorings now transmit near real-time information about bottom dissolved oxygen and other ocean conditions. The upgrades, made possible through partnerships among Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS), Washington Ocean Acidification Center, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Coastal Treaty Tribes, are helping turn long-term monitoring into practical information that fishers, tribal resource managers, sanctuary staff, and scientists can use to guide time-sensitive decisions.
For fishers like Darmiento, real-time bottom oxygen and current data could become part of the same decision-making toolbox as wind, swell, tides, bar conditions, and marine forecasts.
"If available, these would be two of the biggest tools in our toolboxes deciding where to set pots, [oxygen data] and when to go out [current data]," Darmiento said.
Watching Oxygen Near the Seafloor
Dissolved oxygen is exactly what it sounds like: oxygen mixed into seawater. Fish, crabs, shellfish, and other marine animals need it to survive. When oxygen levels drop too low, a condition known as hypoxia, marine life can become stressed, move away, or die.
Along parts of the Olympic Coast, low-oxygen events have become a recurring concern. The southern part of the sanctuary, near Cape Elizabeth in the Quinault Indian Nation's Usual and Accustomed Fishing Area, has experienced some of the most intense and long-lasting low-oxygen conditions recorded by the sanctuary's monitoring program.
"In the summer of 2006, a large fish kill became the first of recurring events in subsequent summers related to hypoxic or anoxic conditions in the area between the southern boundary of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and the area adjacent to Quinault Canyon," said Joe Schumacker, marine resources scientist for the Quinault Department of Fisheries. "Multiple species of fish and shellfish have been seen either dead or distressed by the low oxygen levels."
For catching bottom-dwelling species, such as Dungeness crab and halibut, fishermen need to know what is happening near the seafloor. If crab are free to move, they may be able to leave an area with low oxygen. If they are inside pots, they cannot.
"Dungeness crab, in particular, can benefit from managers knowing that hypoxic conditions are present," Schumacker said. With that information, managers may be able to adjust fishing regulations in an affected area "to avoid entraining crab in place so that they are unable to escape to more oxygen-rich areas."
The same information can also help fishers avoid wasted trips.
"The Quinault ocean crab and fishing fleet is based out of Westport, Washington, approximately 30 to 40 miles from the northern fishing area near Cape Elizabeth," Schumacker said. "Fuel costs are high and getting higher, so fishers can save money by not fishing in the area when hypoxia is prevalent."
Real-Time Decisions
Since 2000, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary has deployed oceanographic moorings to measure seawater conditions along approximately 135 miles of coastline. In recent years, 10 sanctuary sites have been monitored between May and October, when seasonal upwelling can bring deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters toward the surface. Upwelling fuels the high productivity of the area, but can also bring lower oxygen waters nearshore where ocean conditions can fluctuate quickly.
Those long-term data are valuable. They help scientists understand trends, compare conditions from year to year, and improve models of the coastal ocean. But until recently, many of the sanctuary's mooring data were only available after the moorings were recovered at the end of the season.
For people trying to decide whether to fish today, where to set gear this week, or whether poor conditions may be moving toward a fishing area, after-the-fact data are not enough.
"While it is helpful to look at the previous season in terms of long-term modeling, we have heard from partners the desire for more real-time information for ocean conditions, especially hypoxic, or low-oxygen, conditions," said Katie Wrubel, resource protection specialist and permit coordinator at Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. "Having real-time information allows us, as place-based managers, to respond by notifying partners, including resource managers and fishers, of these conditions."
The two sanctuary moorings with real-time capabilities are located near Makah Bay in the northern sanctuary and Cape Elizabeth near the southern sanctuary.
Wrubel explains that these additions have provided better real-time coverage across the Olympic Coast: "Having these two mooring sites in the north and south ends of the sanctuary transmit near real-time information improves spatial coverage, especially with the Quileute Tribe and NANOOS Cha'ba/NEMO moorings covering much of the middle portion of the sanctuary."
Schumacher adds that having the real-time information means that when the Quinault ocean crab and fishing fleet sees that conditions are not ideal in the areas north of the mooring, "They can make the decision to fish south of there where conditions may be better."
Treaty Fisheries and Place-Based Impacts
For the Hoh Tribe, Makah Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Quinault Indian Nation, often referred to as the Coastal Treaty Tribes, real-time information about changing ocean conditions is also tied to resource management and the ability to exercise treaty-reserved rights.
Tribes are not simply stakeholders in sanctuary waters. They are co-managers with legally defined rights and responsibilities. Unlike fisheries that may have more flexibility to shift effort elsewhere, treaty fisheries are connected to specific places along the coast. That means geography matters.
"For the Coastal Treaty Tribes, who can exercise their treaty fishing rights within their legally defined Usual and Accustomed fishing areas, if the fish shift outside of those boundaries they may not be able to harvest those species during stressful ocean conditions," Wrubel said.
That place-based reality is part of why the Quileute Tribe began investing in improved ocean condition monitoring after the 2015 West Coast harmful algal bloom and crab fishery disaster. During that event, high levels of domoic acid, a biotoxin produced by some harmful algae, led to closures of Dungeness crab fisheries and major economic impacts to fishing communities.
Quileute disaster planning documents describe Dungeness crab as one of the highest-valued commercial fisheries in the Tribe's treaty fishery. They also describe how the 2015 crab fishery disaster affected fishers, processing workers, and the surrounding community, while underscoring the need for better monitoring of changing ocean conditions, including harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and ocean acidification.
For Jennifer Hagen, marine policy advisor for the Quileute Tribe, the value of real-time monitoring is that it turns ocean observations into information managers can use for faster decision-making.
"This was a huge investment by many," Hagen said. "It's a beautiful thing that anybody can look at the data and learn about the ocean. But when it's in real time like that, it means that as managers, you can make decisions based on real information."
Using disaster relief funds, the Quileute Tribe partnered with University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory to develop real-time hypoxia-monitoring moorings, often called "landers," that could measure near-bottom dissolved oxygen and currents. That work helped lay the groundwork for the real-time sanctuary mooring upgrades now in place.
Engineering in Service of Community Needs
Getting real-time bottom oxygen data is harder than it sounds.
Hypoxia forms near the seafloor, but conventional oceanographic moorings are not usually designed to place sensors close to the bottom and transmit those data in real time. A sensor can be placed near the bottom to record oxygen internally, but scientists only get those data after the instrument is recovered. For fishers and resource managers, the need is different. They need to know how conditions are changing while those changes are happening.
"Jennifer said, 'I need bottom dissolved oxygen, and I need it in real time,'" recalled John Mickett, a senior oceanographer at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory. "And I thought, 'That's actually hard.'"
That challenge helped drive the design of the Quileute landers and later informed the sanctuary mooring upgrades. Early lander designs had to be modified after field conditions revealed new challenges, including shifting sediment, strong currents, twisted cables, and the need to recover instruments in rough, remote conditions.
"The first landers were out there, and one of them silted in," Mickett said. "Then an octopus made its home there."
The redesigned Quileute landers were widened and elevated above the seabed. During the 2024 deployment, two upgraded landers operated from mid-July to late October southwest of La Push and successfully collected real-time near-bottom dissolved oxygen and current data.
Those measurements are most powerful when viewed together. In late July 2024, the Quileute landers captured a northward-moving mass of hypoxic bottom water. At one site, dissolved oxygen dropped from more than 4 milligrams per liter to less than 1 milligram per liter in less than a day (hypoxic levels). Because the landers also measured water movement, scientists could see that the low-oxygen water was moving north.
"Before, we could see really low oxygen water, but we didn't know which way it was going," Mickett said. "Now we have direct measurements right at the sensor."
The real-time sanctuary moorings now measure conditions through the water column, including near-bottom dissolved oxygen, currents, temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll fluorescence. Together, those data help scientists understand not only what is happening at one location, but also where low-oxygen water may be headed.
"You can say, 'Okay, this water is moving north,'" Mickett said. "If you have crab traps out, or you want to go out and do harvesting, that information can help people prepare before those conditions arrive."
The data are served publicly through NANOOS tools, including the NANOOS Data Explorer, while the moorings are deployed.
"NANOOS's role is to make these observations accessible in real time," said Jan Newton, director of NANOOS. "That means fishers, resource managers, scientists, sanctuary staff, and members of the public do not have to wait until the instruments are recovered to see what is happening."
Data for the Fishing Fleet
For fishers, real-time data are most useful when they can help with practical decisions.
Darmiento already checks apps and forecasts before going out, including Wind Alert, NOAA zone area forecasts, wave information through Backyard Buoys, as well as swell height, the time between swells, and ebb tides for crossing the bar. But those tools do not always show what is happening below the surface, where currents can create immediate operational and safety problems for fishers working crab gear.
"One of the most frustrating issues in our industry is going out to harvest crab and the current is ripping and all of the buoys are under," Darmiento said. "Not only are you burning fuel and time, it can be dangerous because you can end up with lines in the prop because you can't see the buoys."
Other changing ocean conditions can affect the value of the catch itself. Low oxygen can weaken crab, while harmful algal blooms can produce domoic acid, a biotoxin that may close shellfish harvests and disrupt markets even after levels fall back within health standards.
"High domoic acid levels shut down our commercial shellfish harvest and have an economic domino effect within our tribal community, which depends on this harvest to support families," Darmiento said.
He remembers one spring when many fishers delivered weak crab, with some crab dying after delivery. The poor quality hurt the market from the area, dropped the price, and led many boats to stop fishing for the season.
For a fleet that currently provides for 120 Quinault Nation families, better information can help fishers set realistic expectations in a changing ocean.
"I find myself starting to question the sustainability and predictability of our ocean fishing industry," Darmiento said. "The changes seem to be glaring us in the face, and while I have had a great career in the commercial fishing industry, I am concerned about what we will be handing off to the next generation and future generations of fishermen."
A Partnership Built Around Community Needs
The real-time mooring upgrades grew out of years of collaboration. Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary works with the Hoh Tribe, Makah Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Quinault Indian Nation through government-to-government relationships as well as the Olympic Coast Intergovernmental Policy Council. The sanctuary also partners with NANOOS, the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, the Washington Ocean Acidification Center, and other agencies and universities.
"These partnerships help us to better understand community needs on the coast and to fulfill our federal trust responsibility to each tribal nation," Wrubel said.
That partner input informed the need for sanctuary moorings to be converted to real time. Cape Elizabeth was converted because the southern sanctuary has experienced more extreme low-oxygen and ocean acidification conditions, while converting the Makah Bay buoy helped fill a northern gap in real-time coverage.
Turning that need into real-time data required partners to solve challenges in technology, funding, and personnel.
"Years of working together allowed us to solve these problems one by one," Newton said. "When funding from our NOAA Climate Program Office award covered one mooring, the Washington Ocean Acidification Center provided funding for the other. University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory working with the Quileute Tribe solved the technology, and NANOOS had the data-serving capability. But it was people working together for solutions that made it happen."
From Monitoring to Anticipation
The newest data from Cape Elizabeth point toward an important next step: using real-time observations alongside regional forecasting tools like J-SCOPE to better anticipate low-oxygen events.
Because the moorings measure both bottom oxygen and currents, scientists can begin to connect oxygen drops with water movement. Early observations at Cape Elizabeth show a strong relationship between current direction and changes in oxygen. When currents shift, oxygen levels can drop quickly. When currents reverse, oxygen levels can begin to rise again.
While scientists are still learning from these new data streams, the goal is clear: to move from simply documenting what happened after the fact toward recognizing when low-oxygen water may be moving and giving managers and fishers more time to respond.
Real-time data will not prevent hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, or rough seas. It cannot change the weather or guarantee a good fishing season. But it can make invisible conditions visible while people still have time to act on that information.
For fishers and tribal resource managers, that could mean having better information to decide where to set pots, when to pull gear, or whether conditions may affect a fishing area. For sanctuary staff and scientists, it means another tool for understanding and responding to changing ocean conditions in one of the nation's most productive marine ecosystems.
"Good or bad, our access to tools that provide better predictability allows us to be more realistic in our expectations of the fishing seasons and the day-to-day operations of our fleet," Darmiento said.
In a place where ocean conditions can change faster than a fishing plan, real-time data gives coastal communities something they have long asked for: a clearer view of what is happening beneath the surface while there is still time to act.
Rachel Plunkett is the content manager and senior writer/editor for NOAA’s office of National Marine Sanctuaries