The Port Townsend Marine Science Center Aquarium on the pier at Fort Worden State Park will close permanently on Dec. 1. 

“It’ll be a big shift to move gently out of that space and make a high-quality experience just across the street,” said Diane Quinn, the executive director of the science center. “People are very used to having the aquarium out on the pier, and that’s how they identify the marine science center, that place you walk out onto the pier. It’s iconic.” 

The closure is the first step in a more significant effort to streamline the center’s visitor experience by combining wet and dry exhibits in the same space at the museum across the street, Quinn said. 

New exhibits and tanks - made possible by a $75,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services - will be built in the museum over the next several months.

Some of the 70 species of local fish and invertebrates living in the 12 aquarium exhibits will be transferred to the new tanks, while others will be sent to another marine center or released into the ocean, pending release permits.

The aquarium’s closure had been planned for some time and was primarily a precautionary decision, Quinn said. 

While Washington State Parks is not planning to remove the pier or the aquarium building any time soon, according to the center’s website, the pier will eventually need to be replaced.

“We decided to make the move right now rather than waiting to see how much longer the pier was viable because it just makes sense for us to have some agency over when we made this move,” Quinn said. “So that’s what’s driving us to move out of the aquarium: the building itself.” 

Both structures are nearing the end of their life span, according to the center. Maintaining them at a safe level for visitors, staff and species has been an ongoing challenge. 

“The building has no fresh water; there is no heat,” Quinn said. “So, for 42 years, it’s been a very cold place in the winter. Typically, we close it to the public after Thanksgiving weekend and reopen it in late spring. This time, we just won’t be reopening it.” 

The move across the street has begun, but it will be a slow process. 

“We have one sunflower star there now in its own tank and that will be there but we don’t have a timeline for what is moving when,” Quinn said. “But until the rest of the tanks are set up in the new space, we won’t move anything else across the street.” 

Like the aquarium, the museum will close its doors to the public on Dec. 1. Unlike the aquarium, however, the museum will reopen in the spring, after planned renovations there have been completed.