Tatoosh Island is a small island and small group of islands about offshore (northwest) of Cape Flattery, which is on the northwestern tip of the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

in Washington. Tatoosh is the largest of a small group of islands also often referred to as simply "Tatoosh Island", which are almost as far west as Cape Alava, which is about to the south and the westernmost point in the contiguous 48 states. The islands are part of the Makah Reservation and a part of

Clallam County Clallam County is a List of counties in Washington, county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 77,155, with an estimated population of 77,616 in 2023. The cou ...

. The total land area of the island group is .

History

Historically, Tatoosh Island was inhabited seasonally by Makah fishing camps and employees of the United States Coast Guard, Weather Bureau, and Navy. Currently, there is no resident population on the islands. Access to the island requires written permission of the Makah tribe. The island's name comes from a Makah chief known as Tatoosh (also Tatooche or Tetacus). Tatoosh Island has been home to Cape Flattery Light, which overlooks the entrance to the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The Canada–United States border, international boundary between Canada and the ...

, since December 28, 1857. The whole island was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1972. and

Ecology

Because of its isolation, climate, and location in the ecologically productive northeastern Pacific Ocean, Tatoosh Island is home to many nesting seabirds, several marine mammals, and a diverse community of marine plants and animals. Beginning in 1967, Professor Robert T. Paine of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

and his colleagues have undertaken detailed studies of marine ecology on the island. In 1990, Julia Parrish came to the island after an invitation from one of Paine's students and began a long-term research study of sea birds on the island. The research has revealed how species are linked to each other through a network of species interactions, and how environmental changes and species extinction are transmitted through the

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Position in the food web, or trophic level, is used in ecology to broadly classify organisms as autotrophs or he ...

. Key ecological concepts explored by this research include

keystone species A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance. The concept was introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in main ...

, control by consumers and natural disturbances on ecosystem structure and spatial patterning, species interaction strength, body size-dependent population dynamics, and impacts of environmental changes such as

ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ...

and

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

events on complex ecosystems.

Climate

Tatoosh Island has an extremely moderated

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfb'') with very cool but quite long summers, and long, moderate and wet winters. The climate is much more similar to

northern Scotland Northern Scotland was an administrative division of Scotland used for police and firefighting, fire services. It consisted of Highland (council area), Highland, the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, and the Western Isles. The police serv ...

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; / , literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between off the British Columbia Coast, northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia ...

than western Washington. This is due to its exposed location for maritime winds that temper both heat and cold extremes year-round and eliminate dry summers typical of the western/west-southwestern coast of North America. Because of its exposed northwestern location compared to the rest of the state, it is in hardiness zone 9b ( mean minimum temp.) as opposed to between 7b and 9a for most of the rest of western Washington.

Gallery

References

Tatoosh Island group: Blocks 2046 and 2047, Census Tract 9801, Clallam County, Washington
United States Census Bureau *Paine, R. T. 1994. Marine Rocky Shores and Community Ecology: An Experimentalist's Perspective. Ecology Institute, Oldendorf/Luhe, Germany.

External links

Photos and other items about Tatoosh Island
from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

History of Tatoosh Island
from the

University of Washington Libraries The University of Washington Libraries (UW Libraries) is the academic library system of the University of Washington, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It serves the Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses of the University of Wash ...

Digital Collections website
Station TTIW1 - Tatoosh Island, WA
from the

National Data Buoy Center The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). NDBC designs, develops, operates, and maintains a network of data collecting buoys and coastal stations ...

of the

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

, with "sector pictures"
Maps including Tatoosh Island
from the official

Makah The Makah (; Makah: ') are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast living in Washington, in the northwestern part of the continental United States. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah I ...

website
Cape Flattery Tribal Scenic Byway
from the

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

Tourism website
Photos of Cape Flattery Lighthouse and Helipad
from a commercial photographer's website
Cape Flattery Lighthouse

History and culture of the Makah tribe; includes images from Tatoosh Island. * Research summaries, scientific articles, photographs of Tatoosh Island and its organisms, and
video interview
of ecologist
Cathy Pfister
an
Tim Wootton
{{authority control Makah Pacific islands of Washington (state) Landforms of Clallam County, Washington Uninhabited islands of Washington (state) Chinook Jargon place names Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) National Register of Historic Places in Clallam County, Washington Washington (state) placenames of Native American origin