On our planet, water is never at rest. In the ocean, it's ability to absorb, hold and release heat, and atmospheric chemicals makes it one of the planets most dynamic physical systems. In addition, it's perpetual state of motion makes it, (along with the force of gravity), the most active force changing the planet's face. Understanding ocean processes is one of the great challenges of human understanding. The sea's vast scale dwarfs our ability to observe, measure, and predict such things as climate change, currents, and the production of living things at a large scale.

One of the most important ocean processes on the Olympic Coast is upwelling. Seasonal weather patterns create summer winds from the north that push coastal surface water offshore. This in turn draws deeper, nutrient-rich water upward and into the sunlight zone. This triggers explosive growth of plankton and organisms all the way up the food chain.

Large seasonal currents are important for the distribution of fish as well as the movement of sediment along the shore. Smaller scale currents are important for distributing fish and invertebrate larvae, carrying them from rich breeding areas and spreading them over a wide range of suitable habitats.

The raw power of the ocean is apparent almost everywhere along the Olympic Coast. Winter storms that arrive from the southwest create waves that have chiseled the shore into rugged cliffs, headlands, offshore islands and seastacks.