Hatching in the gravel of the Peninsula's rivers, We are all drawn to the ocean's edge to wonder at life's most basic questions, and marvel at the ocean's astonishing diversity. As they mature, they migrate to sea, spending up to four years fattening in the rich pastures of the North Pacific. As adults, they return to their birth-streams, to spawn and die. Not only does their return signify the renewal of life through their offspring, it signifies the nourishment of land plants and animals with their spent carcasses-gifts of phosphorus and nitrogen from the ocean. Harlequin ducks and marbled murrelets are other reminders of the fundamental relationship between the forested river valleys of the Olympic Mountains and the marine waters offshore.
Harlequins nest high in the shady river canyons, within the sound of the roar of white cascades.
Soon, they migrate downstream and take up residence within the sound of the roar of white breakers, in the nearshore areas of the ocean. Marbled murrelets were until recently, ornithological puzzles. Spending most of their lives feeding on small fish off the coast, no one knew just where they nested, although is was suspected that they hatch their young high in the mighty boughs of old-growth trees. Persistent researchers confirmed this as fact. The land affects the ocean too.