Puffin Plate Pre-Order Accomplished

UPDATE: The Puffin Plate has now been fully funded! Voucher holders, keep an eye out in the coming days for a next steps email and an estimated timeline for when you can acquire your plates! Missed the preorder phase? Don't worry! Once we exit the production phase, you'll be able to pick up a puffin plate at any local DMV

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is nearing the end of its Puffin License Plate preorder phase. With less than 50 vouchers to go. Once 3,000 plate vouchers are sold, the preorder phase will close, and the production phase will begin. Everyone who purchased a plate voucher will be notified when this happens. Once the preorder phase closes, Oregon Driver & Motor Vehicle Services will begin plate production. The aquarium cannot yet confirm when production will be complete, but a tentative timeline and information about next steps will be mailed to all voucher holders once the production phase begins.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is one of three facilities in the Pacific Northwest, and the only in the state of Oregon, authorized to provide critical care to endangered marine animals like sea turtles, snowy plovers and Guadalupe fur seals. By bringing the puffin plate to Oregon’s DMV, you’re helping establish an ongoing form of support to wildlife rehab and animal care.

The tufted puffin is one of Oregon’s most iconic species, beloved by coastal locals and travelers alike. They can be seen in the Aquarium’s Seabird Aviary, or through the spring and summer at their famous nesting site at Haystack Rock. While adored, these birds have declined significantly in Oregon over the last few decades, and we want to raise awareness around these incredible birds.

Just a few examples of injured wildlife that arrived at the Oregon Coast Aquarium for care include a hypothermic female olive ridley sea turtle stranded on a remote southern Washington beach. An endangered Western snowy plover chick that was abandoned in its nest, covered in sand, and not even fully hatched. A northern fur seal pup that was entangled by a plastic balloon string in a RV parking lot. The Oregon Coast Aquarium’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Program rescues and rehabilitates threatened and endangered animals as well as indigenous wildlife deemed injured by human interference.

The Aquarium receives hundreds of reports of entangled and injured wildlife each year. The Aquarium partners with wildlife rehabilitation centers along the coast to promote injured animals’ long term care and chances of successful release, and is currently building its own Marine Wildlife Center to expand its capacity for wildlife rehabilitation & animal care. By bringing the puffin plate to Oregon’s DMV, it will provide an ongoing form of support to wildlife rehab and animal care. You can learn more and pre-order your puffin plate here.