One Coast, Shared Stewardship: Park Rangers Learn About Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary

Jun 30, 2026

On a sunny day in June after a two-hour drive to the rustic coastline of Washington, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary staff step out of their car and into the intertidal at Beach 4 near Kalaloch in Olympic National Park and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Along several stretches of its 135-mile rugged coastal boundary, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary overlaps with Olympic National Park in both jurisdiction and visitation. A strong partnership with the park provides a unique opportunity to expand the sanctuary’s outreach. Annually, sanctuary staff meet with newly onboarded coastal interpretive rangers as well as National Park Service education staff to equip them with interpretive strategies to share information about the marine sanctuary and its inhabitants with the millions of people who visit the Olympic Coast each year.

Sanctuary staff begin the annual training with an overview of the National Marine Sanctuary System and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, introducing rangers to the sanctuary's mission, educational programming, and current outreach goals. Rangers then participate in a hands-on activity from K-12 programming that explores cetacean communication—and even learn how to listen like a whale!

The training also gives park rangers a deeper understanding of the sanctuary’s resource protection efforts. Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary’s resource protection specialist provides an overview of sanctuary regulations including low overflight and other prohibited activities, as well as voluntary habitat protection measures like the area to be avoided. Rangers also learn about the sanctuary’s partnerships with the four Coastal Treaty Tribes and ongoing research efforts to better monitor ocean health and biodiversity, including oceanographic moorings and intertidal, kelp forest, and underwater sound monitoring programs.

After the overview, the training moves into the field with a guided exploration of intertidal environment. Sanctuary staff serve as naturalists, explaining tidepool safety tips for both people and wildlife, distributing species identification guides for rangers, and pointing out tidepool animals such as nudibranchs, anemones, sea stars, sponges, tube worms, and sculpins.

Many of the rangers said this experience helped them think about ways to share sanctuary stories with the public.

“Connecting visitors with the ocean and the marine sanctuary is such a big part of our jobs at Kalaloch,” said Olympic National Park Interpretive Coordinator Jamie Shurnitski. “One of my favorite things is sharing the wonder and excitement of discovering tidepool creatures with our visitors; the training with the sanctuary staff is so important to being prepared and knowledgeable about this special place.”

This training wraps up aboard the sanctuary’s Research Vessel Storm Petrel where rangers gain a new perspective of the coast from the water. During the trip, sanctuary staff helped rangers identify sea birds and marine mammals, such as tufted puffins, sea otters, and sea lions; discussed research and resource protection initiatives; and answered questions. Staff also highlighted the ways in which the sanctuary coordinates with partners such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Washington Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Complex, including offshore islands within the sanctuary.

Olympic National Park’s coastal interpretive rangers have expressed gratitude for the information and resources provided. Many stay after the training ends to share their excitement about incorporating sanctuary information into national park interpretive programs and ask additional questions. At its heart, the training is about building long-lasting partnerships that expand Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary’s capacity to share, study, and safeguard this spectacular coastal ocean environment.

"For many visitors, tide pooling on the Olympic Coast is unlike anything they've experienced before—I know it was for me! Getting to help facilitate this experience is one of the best parts of my job,” said Rachel Taylor, an interpretive park ranger with the National Park Service. “The annual coast training with NOAA helps give me the tools and knowledge to make these opportunities that much better for the visitors."

Katie Wrubel is the resource protection specialist and permit coordinator for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary

Rachel Plunkett is the content manager and senior writer/editor for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries