The Northwest Straits Commission announced registration is open for its annual conference, scheduled for November at Maple Hall in La Conner, Skagit County, and invited Marine Resources Committee members to register by Oct. 7 and coordinate travel with county staff.

The conference notice came from Caitlin Blair of the Northwest Straits Commission, who said the conference website includes registration, hotel room-block information at the Fairfield in Burlington and details on a keynote by artist-author Josie Island. "The conference website is gonna be where you are going to get all of your information that you'll need this year," Blair said. She added guests can attend the keynote dinner for a small fee.

Commission business updates focused on on-the-ground projects and organizational changes. Alan Clark, Clallam County MRC member at large and Northwest Straits representative, summarized an in-person commission meeting in Whatcom County that included a field visit to the Whatcom MRC27s eelgrass preservation project. Clark said the project combined small behavioral interventions27 placing orange cones to direct crabbers27with tide-timing outreach to reduce vehicle launches over eelgrass beds. "You could see before and after shots this year," Clark said, describing early signs that the measures reduced damage.

Clark also described a presentation by the Blaine Marine Economy Research Institute for Sustainability about potential low-impact marine-related economic uses near Blaine27s harbor, and mentioned the commission will send a letter of support to expand Blue Schools, a waterfront career-education model used in Port Townsend. Clark said Blue Schools aims to integrate maritime and waterfront jobs into K-12 education, ranging from welding to marine-research technician skills.

On organizational matters, Clark said Judy Brockhurst resigned from a governor27s appointment to the commission. "She had been a director before that, and so we will be replacing her," he said, adding the commission has discussed candidates and will follow the governor27s appointment process.

Finally, Clark noted work is underway on SoundIQ, a web tool intended to make regional data and research easier to find and share, and that the Northwest Straits Foundation is currently separate from the commission, a change he described as having funding and structural implications.

Members were reminded to register and coordinate logistics with county staff and MRC coordinators; Blair said she planned to return to local MRC meetings in September to answer questions and send reminders.

Less critical details: registration deadlines and room-block specifics are on the conference website; members are asked to consult county MRC staff for travel planning.