gene|fish

Hooray August!  Beautiful days make for enjoyable field work.  I think I finally have a system down to minimize the amount of stuff I lug around and maximize sampling efficiency (still haven’t figured out how to make my car smell better though, will continue to work on that one).  First up was the Big Beef Creek site on Tuesday.  It will be good to remember that it’s better to sample this site a few hours before the low tide, more oysters still immersed.  Had three generations of the Roberts clan helping out today which was pretty impressive. 
Wednesday was a hard day for equipment.  Lost a pair of clippers, broke a thermometer and an oyster knife.  Samish Bay was the first sampling site for the hybrid oysters that were deployed back in June.  Only 2 mortalities from each of the lines (160 oysters each), and they had grown an incredible amount.  I was glad I had gotten advice to bring the lab spatulas to shuck the little ones (thanks Coleen!) because the oyster knife would have been too thick.   Had a pediatrician and Quality Control analyst on board today – Dr. Big Al had razor sharp precision (and busted my oyster knife) and Ali kept us organized, well labeled and accurate ☺.
Today was South Sound; Lynch Cove and North Bay.  My new favorite sites.  Maybe it was the perfect weather, easy collection (my feet had been rubbed raw from trudging in the mud on Wednesday), or incredible help (thanks Lisa and Elene!) –regardless it was a great day.  The hybrid oysters at North Bay were in great shape, only 2 mortalities and at first glance appear to be even larger than the batch at Samish the day before.  Got some great oyster pics this time around.  I think I’ll start working on a 12 month “Oysters of Puget Sound” calendar.
- Mac

Last day, beautiful weather and lots of mud.  We left Seattle for Willapa Bay at 5:30am.  Three and a half hours later we arrived at the sample site and unloaded the gear.  This site is a lot muddier than Big Beef Creek and Lindsay wanted to wear waders to keep a cut on her leg free of mud.  Sure, no problem – but the waders are HUGE and about 4 steps in she fell and was coated in mud.  This scene, which was not hilarious in the least bit (wink), was to be repeated multiple times on the trek out to the oysters.   The laughter just made it that much harder to move.  I charged Lindsay with the task of collecting oysters while I hiked down a few hundred yards to attach the bags of juveniles to the already established lines.  Of the three sites that the juveniles were outplanted, I only had to stake new lines at one site (Samish Bay).  The benefit of placing the bags on already established lines is that the bags will get flipped over (to prevent fouling) when the other farm bags are flipped.  As I hiked back I saw Lindsay struggling to keep her feet in her waders and carry the bucket of oysters at the same time.  “Leave the bucket, save yourself!”, I yelled.  Once everyone was safe on solid ground we commenced sampling and made quick work of the job.  On the way home I was excited to find out that the veteran volunteer had brought snacks.  Hard work, entertainment AND snacks!  Great day.

Whew, light driving day over to Big Beef Creek.  Tides were low – so low in fact that it was difficult finding 30 submerged oysters.  It took about 25 minutes to get all of the samples together.  If I sample on a low tide like this again, I’ll plan on arrive hours before the low.  While we were collecting we found a few oyster shells that were loaded with large, orange fish eggs.  We took pictures – very cool.  There were also a bunch of small fish and other invertebrates that were using oyster shell for habitat and protection.  I had a fresh volunteer, my friend Lindsay, so we spent some time going over techniques and sampling went along smoothly.  As we were leaving to catch the ferry home we noticed that there were at least 5 bald eagles sitting on the beach.  I’m sure they were there for the “tidepooling” as well.

Today I tried something new – Samish Bay and Drayton harbor sampling in the same morning.  I was nervous about catching the low tide at the second site, Drayton Harbor, which is a good 45 minute drive from Samish Bay so we started early.  Today I had the Spilke brothers, George and Sam, as volunteers.  One a veteran and one first timer (visiting from Connecticut) I quickly find out neither of are morning people.  We arrived at Samish Bay an hour and a half before low tide and had to stand in the water, ten feet from the oyster lines and wait for the tide to go out.  While Sam collected oysters (I love that volunteers from the east coast are shocked at the size of Washington oysters), I set the bags of juvenile oysters on home made lines.  I think James, the farm manager at Taylor, is definitely going to make fun of my attempt at farming – but the lines seem sturdy anyway.  Once the brothers figured out who was shucking and who was recording data we made quick work of sampling and headed up to Drayton Harbor.  The tide was lower than it was in April and it took a few extra minutes to collect 30 oysters.  The overcast morning had given way to sun and beautiful weather (lucky again!).  We were a seasoned crew at this point and sampled quickly.  I do want to comment on the appearance of the oysters at Drayton Harbor as I had never seen anything like it.  The mantle of these animals was thin and almost transparent in some.  Additionally, many appeared to be ripe with gametes.  Overall, these animals did not appear as healthy as oysters from Samish Bay.  I’m not sure if this has to do with their reproductive stage or the water quality.  I am excited to start processing these samples to find out.  It was a successful day sampling both sites and it certainly pays off by saving on driving time.  I’ll close with some of my favorite Spilke brother quotes of the day: “I’m like the Tom Cruise of oyster shucking” (ref. movie Cocktail circa 1988). “Seriously – calipers?  Are we in the middle ages here?” – “Yeah it’s like using an abacus”.  I love brothers.  Very entertaining.

Day one of June’s tour de oysters consisted of sampling at two South Sound sites, Lynch Cove and North Bay.  My veteran volunteer (aka Mom) and I started the morning at Lynch Cove.  The tide this morning was a lot lower than the first time we were at this site in April and so we had to hike a lot further out into the bay to sample oysters that were still immersed.  The protocol was to collect 30 oysters then bring them up to solid ground for dissection.  I’ve found that having a few extra is a good idea, because a mud filled shell can sometimes fool you and you do not want to make that trek twice.   Collection was quick, but the hike back in the mud with a full bucket of oysters was a nightmare!  We had mud up to the top of our boots and had to lean on each other to pull stuck boots and feet out of the muck.  Once we made it to solid ground my mom made light work measuring and shucking oysters (seriously, she’s good), while I took gill tissue and hemolymph samples. 
I was worried about getting to North Bay while oysters were still immersed, so we packed up quickly and drove 20 minutes to the North Bay site.  Today, in addition to sampling oysters at North Bay, I was also out planting juvenile oysters.  I had two lines of fourth generation hybrid crosses obtained from Joth Davis to place at three sites to sample over the course of a year.  The juveniles were about the size of a dime and I had 160 oysters from each line in mesh bags that I placed on a fixed line in the same area as the oysters I sampled.  Aside from the large crab sneaking up on my mom while we were sampling, everything went smoothly.  There was a lot of action at North Bay aside from our little operation.  Taylor employees were out working on geoduck beds and the public beach down the road was absolutely packed with families harvesting clams and Pacific oysters - another beautiful day in South Sound.

Last day, and a long drive south to Bay Center in Willapa Bay (Pacific County).  Willapa Bay has relatively pristine water and yields a large amount of the state’s oysters.  This morning, we stopped in Shelton to pick up Kyle from Taylor Shellfish farm who is going to help us with oysters today.  We took the back way and I have to admit I may never find my way to Bay Center again. We parked at the end of a private driveway and walked out on the flats to collect oysters The bay is narrow where we sampled and dotted with residential areas.  Every once and a while a small fishing vessel would come through the channel, but aside from that we didn’t see anyone while we were there.  The oysters at this site were not on lines like at Samish Bay, but instead were growing on the muddy substrate in small clusters. Oyster collection and sampling were a breeze (Kyle made quick work of the oyster shucking!) and we celebrated by the final field day with some fresh oysters – yum!

Samish Bay is in Whatcom County near the town of Blanchard Washington and the mouth of the Samish River.  Samish Bay has seen increases in fecal coliform counts and potential pollution sources include on-site sewage systems service Blanchard, WA. 

The farm is located in a cove so you can’t seee much to the north or South.  But the city of Bellingham is up around the corner and the town of Blanchard is just below.  From the farm though only a few residential buildings can be seen.  We meet James at Taylor who walks us North along the shore to where the oysters are hanging on lines about a foot off the ground.  James tells us about the native eel grass that is competing with an invasive eel grass and shows us oyster drills and their egg cases.  The tide is getting low so we had to walk to the end of the lines to get oysters that hadn’t been exposed yet.  It was MUDDY!  I had to put my bucket down to dig my boots out a few times – but thankfully, for the volunteers – oysters were collected quickly, and sampling went pretty well once we were out of the mud.  Even a bit of a sun burn today.

The Lynch Cove site is at Belfair State Park in Belfair, Washington at the tip of Hood Canal.  Lynch Cove has seen major problems with hypoxia and anoxia, which is part of the reason it has a listing of “high concern” by WSDOE.  The sampling site is beside a small creek at the north end of the beach at the state park. 
The bay is well protected and the shoreline is dotted with residential houses.  The oysters at Belfair state park are a natural set (the southern area of the beach was open to clam and oyster harvest at the time of sampling).  The substrate at this site is sandy which made for easy picking as oysters were growing in small clusters on oyster shell.  The water was clear and getting warm quickly, thanks to the sun, even though it was only 9:30am.  We had a comfortable spot on a picnic table to perform sampling and chatted with many of the curious, local park goers.  When we finished, we packed up quick and drove over to North Bay to hit another site before the tides came in.

While North Bay is only a short drive from Belfair State park (20 min), it not part of Hood Canal.  North Bay, located on Case Inlet in Mason County, has seen an increase in residential development and unfortunately an increase in harvest restrictions due to water quality issues. 
Today we met up with Joth Davis of Taylor Shellfish Farms, so he could show us where to sample oysters at the Taylor site. It wasn’t low tide when we arrived so the oysters were a bit deeper (1 -2 feet), but the tide was going out fast. Joth pulled up ~25 oysters really quickly while my mom (the fantastic volunteer) battered him with shellfish farming questions.  Since we were warmed up from Lynch Cove, sampling went really fast, we had some time afterwards to walk the public beach about a mile from the farm.  This beach was currently open for clams and oysters (Pacific’s are seeded here by WDFW for recreational harvest) and there were a lot of people out and about.  There was a large sand dollar bed, (my mom saw her first moon snail!), and we walked beyond the Pacific oysters to a huge bed of Olympia oysters. It was the first time I had seen our native species, and it was really cool to see them in such high numbers.  I was worried about doing 2 sites in a day, but it worked out great.  All in all, great day.

Drayton Harbor is located at the north end of Whatcom County near Blaine, Washington.    There is large community effort to keep this water clean (Drayton Harbor Shellfish Protection District, Community oyster farm.).  The site selected for this study has a natural set of Pacific oysters at the mouth of California creek.
In contrast to yesterday’s site at Big Beef Creek, the Drayton Harbor site has a much higher local population density.  From the sampling site under the bridge, the city of Blaine, Washington is visible in the distance.  Oyster collection also wasn’t as easy as Big Beef because the water murky so collection was kind of blind.  We’d reach our hands in the water and feel around for oysters and pull them up.  There were a lot of empty shells, but we were still able to sample 25 oysters rather quickly (yay volunteers!) and sampling went smooth thanks to the lessons learned at Big Beef Creek.  We also had the pleasure of watching a bald eagle catch and eat a fish within 50 yards of us.  It was a good day.

The Big Beef Creek site is located on the east shore of North Hood Canal near Seabeck, Washington.  The University of Washington owns the nearly 40 acres of the tidelands in this area and approximately 400 acres upstream of Big Beef Creek.  This site is relatively pristine with a low population density and consistently low fecal coliform levels.  
Big Beef Creek was the inaugural site and it was a beautiful morning for field work.  We started collecting oysters at 10:30 am, about an hour and a half before the low tide. The oysters here are a natural set so shape and size of the oyster varied considerably. The water flowing out of the creek was clear and oysters were sampled quickly off the rocks with the help of a small hammer.  There was a lot of diversity in this area and in addition to oysters we found mussels, snails, eels…  Sampling went pretty smooth (considering I had packed the entire lab in the car), but there were also some valuable lessons for the next time, such as; bringing chairs is important!, pre-label all tubes, and bags to speed up sampling and ALWAYS wear gloves when shucking oysters. OUCH!