Marine Resources Committee fills unique niche

The Grays Harbor County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) is one of the more unique volunteer advisory committees in the region.

There are but five such committees along the coast of Washington and a handful on the East Coast. The Grays Harbor MRC was the first of its kind in the state and was formed in 2009.

You might be familiar with the usual boards and committees such as noxious weed, parks and library boards, Lodging Tax Advisory Committees (LTAC), civil service, planning and salary commissions, etc. Because of all of the waterways in the area, flora and fauna, and the precarious Pacific coastline, the MRC fills a unique niche in the Grays Harbor region.

“Marine Resource Committees were created by the state Legislature to bring a local viewpoint to marine resource issues in the five coastal counties,” said Grays Harbor MRC Chair John Shaw. “We address local marine issues and recommend action to local, state and federal authorities.”

The Grays Harbor County’s MRC’s mission is “to educate and promote the involvement of our citizens in coastal marine issues, close the gap in scientific data about our local marine resources, do on-the-ground projects that benefit local marine resources and coastal communities, guide state and federal public policies that affect our local marine resources, identify local community priorities for marine resources, ensure public safety for our citizens along the coast, and promote sustainable coastal communities through our marine resources.”

The MRC consists of members from various disciplines and varied interests including conservation/environmental, recreation and economic groups, government, commercial fishing/crabbing/aquaculture , local citizens, education, the scientific community, tribal government, sport fishing and state agencies.

“We have a lot of subject matter expertise within the group,” Shaw said. “We have a very dynamic group capable of doing good work.”

Shaw added that the MRC was the driving force behind getting Ocean Shores and Westport to work together along with Grays Harbor County on their common erosion issues.

“(The MRC is) an underutilized platform for bringing some really important nearby, hyper-local issues together with our cities and our county government and as we go forward in dealing with issues of erosion, climate change, sea level rise, etc., it’s a really good way to, you know, bring that discussion forward,” Shaw said. “We can aggregate issues that need prioritization, explain them and get them to other levels of local government. That’s how we ended up getting started on the Cooperating Technical Partners (grant) and whatnot. That was us recommending to the cities of Westport and Ocean Shores that they develop and participate. That became this really solid partnership of the two coastal cities and the county, and there’s great work being started right now.”

According to Shaw, increased community outreach and awareness is a major MRC focus.

“I’ve been pushing particularly hard to engage more with the community. We’ve done more outreach, we’ve done more field trips for kids, we fund more educational projects,” Shaw said. “We are trying to always take a bigger role in getting the public informed. We hope to have a couple venue based public engagements in addition to things like our field trips and education and get some of the key topics out to the public in a positive way this year. The Grays Harbor County Fair is a good one for us because we see 70,000 people. This year we will be there (July 30-August 2).”

The MRC/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s exhibit won Best of Show as Best Indoor Commercial Exhibitor at the 2024 Grays Harbor County Fair.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Coastal Marine Resources Committee Program 2024 Report to the Legislature, “The fair’s theme, ‘Whale of a Fair,’ aligned with the MRC’s mission and goals. Through collaboration with the fair board, the seafood industry was successfully showcased as part of the local agricultural commodity representation. The MRC’s exhibit featured the big salmon (Fin) and the big whale, as well as displays from salmon groups, Pacific Seafoods, We Fish, the Port of Grays Harbor, the MRC, and WDFW. Informational handouts were distributed, and volunteers engaged in meaningful discussions with the public about salmon.”

The Grays Harbor MRC currently has several seats available. If you are interested in serving, visit: https://www.graysharbor.us/government/board_of_county_commissioners/notice_of_vacancy_mrc.php