Titlow Beach Marine Preserve

Titlow Beach Marine Preserve sits on the eastern shore of the Tacoma Narrows, at the foot of the Sixth Avenue extension inside a 75-acre Metro Parks Tacoma property known as Titlow Park. The preserve itself covers 41.65 acres, split between 14.78 acres of intertidal ground and 26.87 acres of subtidal water. Its underwater signature is a set of remnant ferry pilings, and the boundary written into state code is anchored to those very pilings. Depths and structure inside the preserve are shaped by the powerful tidal flow of the Narrows just offshore.

The identity of the site traces back to the former ferry landing at the foot of the Sixth Avenue extension, once part of the Tacoma-to-Point Fosdick crossing. The pilings that carried the ferry's dock remain as the primary underwater structure a diver encounters here, and the marine preserve was drawn around them. The park address, 8425 Sixth Avenue in Tacoma, sits at the same point on the Narrows shore, and the wider park includes the historic Titlow Lodge, playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, and picnic grounds.

The rocky reef biome takes shape at Titlow through the piling structure and the reef bottom around them, which together form the sheltering underwater terrain the preserve was drawn to protect. Scuba is the working use of the site. Its placement on the Narrows, one of the strongest tidal-current constrictions in Puget Sound with peaks past 5.5 knots midchannel, means the water underneath moves fast enough to demand careful slack-tide timing on every entry.

Parking is inside Titlow Park at the main lot, alongside restrooms and the rest of the park's amenities; the gate closes at dusk. Under Washington Administrative Code 220-302-110, harvest of trout, bottomfish, shellfish, forage fish, and unclassified species is enforced as closed throughout the preserve, with salmon fishing permitted only by lures from shore or from a non-motorized craft.