More than 1,400 people passed through the doors at the Ocean Shores Convention Center for the 39th Annual Beachcombers and Glass Float Expo over the weekend.

The unofficial start to spring festival season in the seaside city featured dozens of vendors, maritime organizations, local artisans, glass float displays and contests. Attendees were also afforded the opportunity to attend guest lectures presented by Expo founder Alan Rammer on razor clams and beachcombing, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the Surfrider Foundation and John Anderson on “Extreme Beachcombing.”

Formerly known as Beachcombers Fun Fair, the 2025 Expo included the release of nearly 1,000 authentic Japanese glass fishing floats with “Expo25” etched into the glass during the weeks leading up to and including the Expo.

The float release kicked off on Valentine’s Day. Beachcombers were also encouraged to pick up trash and turn it in for processing and analysis at the Expo.

Dozens of people posted pictures of themselves with their finds to the Expo’s Facebook page in hopes of winning one of seven large glass floats. Entrants could increase their chances of winning the contest by entering in person at the Expo. Of the nearly 1,000 floats released, 450 were returned for entry into the contest.

Rammer, the founder and first-ever event chairman, said the Expo has become an extremely important event for Western Washington, the local community and tourists.

“It’s very good, last year we had weather related issues, the weather is a big determining factor, and there’s a clam tide tonight (Saturday),” Rammer said. “I worked at Fish and Wildlife for 36 years, I was the marine community outreach and environmental educator for 22, trying to promote conservation and stewardship for our marine resources, my goal has always been trying to promote partnerships between the agency and the public. That’s what I’ve been trying to do all my life. I’m trying to get people to understand that this is their resource and it has to be a partnership. It’s pretty bad how people abuse their resources.”

According to Rammer, it’s crucial for people to be educated about and experience the place where they live and the Expo factors into that philosophy.

“It’s amazing how many people who live here in Grays Harbor who have never been to the beach, never dug a clam, have never picked a wild berry, haven’t gone out in the forest,” Rammer said. “Part of my mission is to get people to realize what they’ve got. When this festival started, it had a lot of resistance because it’s a shoulder season event, it’s winter time, I had a lot of blowback but there was a core group of people who helped me get this started. This is really important to the community now because it’s helping to promote what is there to do here in the offseason.”

Rammer plans to step away after the 2026 Expo, the 40th anniversary of the event.

“The best part of this journey has been meeting so many wonderful fellow enthusiasts who love the beach and all the various treasures it deposits at our feet along the shores of the world,” Rammer posted on Facebook. “There are many pieces required in order to bring together the wonderful event, I can’t emphasize enough that it takes a village to pull this all together.”

The Beachcombers and Glass Float Expo is just one of a handful of such events in the United States. Lincoln City, Oregon, holds a year-round event known as Finders Keepers where visitors can search for glass treasures made by local artisans along seven miles of beach. On the East Coast, people travel to Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island in search of hand-blown glass orbs hidden all over the island. Jekyll Island on the east coast of Georgia hosts a similar event called Island Treasures which ended on Friday.

John Shaw, a member of the Beachcombers Heritage board of directors, said he’s excited about the educational opportunities the Expo has been incorporating in recent years and the spirit of competition.

“I’m excited about how we are expanding into environmental and beach educational activities, and outreach with people who clean and care for the beaches, as well as the beloved collecting of floats, driftwood and the like,” Shaw said. “We embrace the tradition and the people who carried this show for so many years and we’re going to have a very fun 40th next year. I am just feeling really good about the buzz to do more. We are on the upswing again of people bringing in their beach finds and (contest) entries, bringing in art and photography and it’s very exciting to see.”

Shaw, who coordinates the float release, added that he was excited to see the turnout for the Expo, especially since it’s one of the first major events of the year in Ocean Shores and the lead-in to the Razor Clam Festival and Seafood Extravaganza March 21-23.

“It’s been outstanding, we had a line out the door to start, we had people out on the beach getting floats, it is busy, we have a great hall in the front here with people with related science,” Shaw said. “People are really engaging in the (competition). It’s a great piece of history, people all connect, my family used to find them, it’s a great touchpoint for people who have been visiting the beach for a couple of generations. Beachcombing is big, it may be a little quieter than the clam festival, but we’ve got people traveling in and we’ve got people coming to the beach, which is one of the goals. Glass floats, sea glass, driftwood, and science related to the experience here in the Pacific Northwest are fun engagement points.”

John Shaw The Octopus’s garden took home the People’s Choice Award.

John Shaw The National Marine Sanctuaries offered educational opportunities at the Beachcombers and Glass Float Expo.

Beachcombers and Glass Float Expo founder Alan Rammer poses for a photo. (Jerry Knaak / The Daily World)