Discovery Bay’s expansive mudflats along the Olympic Peninsula have fostered the recovery of native Olympia oysters.
The population has grown to more than 100,000 oysters in the 10 years since the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe partnered with the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee (MRC) to support the population in the bay.
Olympia oysters are important to the tribe as a traditional food source and the shells are used in traditional clothing. These shellfish also are important to Puget Sound as they create inter-tidal habitat for crab, juvenile salmon, seasonal birds and other marine life. But the populations in the region had been nearly destroyed by sedimentation from logging and overharvest since the late 1880s.
After monitoring a small population in a lagoon on the southwest corner of the bay and finding Olympias growing on structures being removed from an old sawmill site in 2014, the MRC and tribe decided to create a satellite population nearby.
Pacific oyster shells were placed in the mudflats and in adjacent lagoons to provide a solid substrate where Olympia oyster larvae could settle.
“These lagoons had a fairly robust but small population—meaning probably in the few thousands—of Olympia oysters but they were pumping out larvae,” said Neil Harrington, the tribe’s environmental biologist. “While there were a lot of larvae float-ing around, there weren’t a lot of places for it to land.”
Between 2019 and 2024, about 6 yards of shell were added to the lagoons and 30 yards of shell were spread in the mudflats—and the oyster population grew.
“We already have really good recruitment, and we’re boosting that core population even more,” Harrington said.
Above: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe environmental biologist Neil Harrington, left, and Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee member Brad Bebout add Pacific oyster shells to a lagoon adjacent to Discovery Bay. Photos and story: Tiffany Royal
