Wild in the Water

Hood Canal and the many inlets of Mason County are rich in marine resources. Salmon, clams, oysters, shrimp and crabs are just some of the bounty this unique area yields. Whether you want to harvest yourself or would like to purchase from a local fisher, you are sure to be well fed.

An Oyster Overview

The Olympia oysters were important to early settlers. The first group of settlers arrived in Puget Sound late in the year of 1845 — too late to plant a garden or stock up on food for the winter. Oysters saved these early settlers from starvation.

With the development of Seattle and Tacoma and the completion of the transcontinental railway other insatiable oyster markets developed. When Washington received statehood in 1889, it became the only state to legalize private ownership of tidelands. This unique law allowed shellfish farmers to develop an industry that could treat its foreshore like agricultural lands.

By the early 1900s, the Olympia oysters in Puget Sound were facing pressures from over harvest and pollution. Although methodologies had developed that brought harvesting closer to agriculture, such as creating diked oyster beds (to keep the oysters in water when the tide receded), the Olympia oyster’s natural stocks were in trouble. In a bid to reinvigorate the industry non-native varieties were introduced to Washington waters.

In the 1890s, the larger, faster growing Virginica oysters, were introduced from the Atlantic seaboard, but these proved temperamental.

By 1900 Japanese labor supplied most of the workers in the oyster industry as Japanese immigrants came to work in oyster production and brought with them experience from the Japanese oyster industry.

In 1920, two enterprising oystermen Emy Tsukimoto and Joe Miyagi decided to form their own company and introduced oyster seed from Japan – the Pacific. It is now the popular variety harvested in Washington State.

Although over 150 years have passed since the first Olympia oysters were shipped from entrepreneurs in pre-statehood Washington to gold miners in San Francisco, this industry has only grown stronger and more lucrative. With an annual farmgate over $108 million, Washington is the largest producer of hatchery-reared and farmed shellfish in the U.S.