CURRENT PROJECTS
Olympia Oyster Continuation and Expansion
Tarboo/Dabob Bay Fish Assessment
Port Townsend Bay Eelgrass Voluntary Anchor Protection Zone Pilot Project
ONGOING PROJECTS
Library Development
Forage Fish / Nearshore Information
Website Development
Olympia Oyster Continuation & Expansion
The Olympia oyster ranges from Southeast Alaska to Baja California, and is the only oyster that is native to Washington. Formerly abundant, the Olympia oyster was an important food source for many coastal Native American tribes. By 1870, overharvesting had already significantly depleted oyster stocks in Puget Sound. Water pollution was another factor that had profound effects on oyster populations. Unregulated effluent from surrounding pulp and paper mills before the 1950s played a large part in the declines of the Olympic oyster. To augment their ailing stocks, oystermen began importing the larger and faster-growing Japanese or Pacific oyster in large numbers, which soon replaced the Olympia oyster in their cultivated beds.
| Volunteers prepare oysters for planting |
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The Jefferson County MRC is partnering with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) and Tribes to reintroduce the Olympia oyster into appropriate Jefferson County intertidalhabitat. During 2002, 25,000 seed were set in Discovery Bay. During 2003, 200,000 seed were set in Discovery Bay. We monitor the sites twice a year.
Representatives from the MRC, Puget Sound Restoration, and Taylor United, performed initial site surveys in Discovery Bay prior to the seedings. In January 2003, the Chimacum High School Science Class participated with the MRC and PSRF in a preliminary habitat survey of a site for potential 2003 seeding and preliminary monitoring of the junction tideland seeding site of 2002.
Click on a link below for more details
• Site Seeding • Community Outreach & Involvement • Benchmarks