WHAT’S IN A NAME? HISTORY AND RECENT ADVANCES IN

RESEARCH AND RESTORATION OF THE OLYMPIA OYSTER, Ostrea

lurida Carpenter 1864

WHAT’S IN A NAME? HISTORY AND RECENT ADVANCES IN

RESEARCH AND RESTORATION OF THE OLYMPIA OYSTER, Ostrea

lurida Carpenter 1864

Kay McGraw NOAA Restoration Center

Silver Spring, MD

ICSR 2010Nov 20, 2010

2

Topics

• Taxonomy– why bother?

• History and Decline

• Restoration

• Research

3

What’s in a Name?

Common Name: Olympia Oyster–

Scientific Name: ??Ostrea conchaphila Carpenter 1857

Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864(Polson et al., 2009. JSR 28 (1) )

Taxonomy

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44Ostrea conchaphila

Olympia oyster range

Ostrea lurida

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• Are dominant fossil in some sites• Found in coastal kitchen middens along the

west coast

History

6

Some Characteristics

• Only oyster native to the U.S. west coast

• Small and slow growing

• “Delicate”

• No promyal chamber (less tolerant of turbidity??)

• Protandrous hermaphrodite

• Broods larvae up to 12 days

• Don’t really form large “reefs”

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8

Puget Sound, WA

99

THEN

Olympia Oyster Co. ca 1899– Oly oyster beds

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Olympia Oyster Landings1888 - 2008

0

25

50

75

100

125

150

175

200

225

1888

1915

1925

1935

1945

1955

1965

1975

1985

1995

2005

Years

Ten

s o

f th

ou

san

ds

of

po

un

ds

Pulp mill opens in Shelton,WA

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Oyster Bay

Totten Inlet

Eld Inlet

Budd Inlet

Olympia

Shelton

12

Sulfite Wastes

Olympia Oyster Production and Sulfite Waste (1920 - 1970)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Years

Tens

of T

hous

ands

of

Pou

nds

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

Tons

of W

aste

per

Yea

r

Olympia oyster productionSulfite WasteLinear (Sulfite Waste)

Pulp Mill Closed 1957

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• Overharvest

• Water quality/pollution

• Loss of cultch

• Predators and pests

• Introduction of non-native oyster (Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas)

Reasons for Decline

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Restoration

NOAA RC Shellfish Restoration Projects

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Restoration

West Coast --Olys• 20+ projects

• Over $2 M invested

• 95 acres • 2 Workshops

• Special volume of JSR on Olympia oysters

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Funding

$0

$500,000

$1,000,000

$1,500,000

$2,000,000

CA OR WA All StatesStates

Do

lla

rs

NOAA contrib

partner contrib

state contrib

other non federal contrib

total contributions

17

Number of Projects by State

Volunteer Hours

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

100,000

CA OR WA

Vo

lun

teer

s/H

rs (

Lo

g S

cale

)# Volunteer Hrs# VolsAvg # Hrs per Volunteer31,505

8, 480

3.7

644

3519

3,490

581

6

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Examples of Restoration Projects

• Northern San Francisco Bay– (Bud Abbott)

• Newport Bay, CA – (Danielle Zacherl)

• Puget Sound– (Betsy Peabody)

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Robert R. Abbott and Rena Obernolte—S.F. Bay

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Danielle Zacherl et al. Newport Bay, CA

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Betsy Peabody et al. – Puget Sound Restoration Fund

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RESEARCH

• Is it Ostrea conchaphila or lurida? (Maria Polson)

• How much genetic variation is there among/within Ostrea lurida populations along the west coast? (Mark Camara)

Genetics

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Jennifer Ruesink et al – North Bay, Case Inlet, Puget Sound, WA

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Alan Trimble’s research – Willapa Bay, WA

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Status of populations

• Trips to Esperanza Inlet, British Columbia– (Joth Davis)

• Surveys in British Columbia– (Graham Gillespie)

Port Eliza, B.C.

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Port Eliza, B.C.

2727

Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together. 

All things connect. …..Chief Seattle, [Seatlh], Suquamish - 1786-1866

“Vision of a Restored Habitat” by Cory and Catska Ench, Port Townsend, WA