Posted on Aug 11, 2021
Shellfish farmers line up for disaster aid after heat wave decimates oysters and clams
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Sixty shellfish farms in Washington state have applied for federal disaster aid after a double whammy of extreme heat and afternoon low tides killed most of their oysters and clams in June.
They’re bracing for a second heat wave this week.
Many shellfish operations in south Puget Sound and Hood Canal reported losing the majority of of their saltwater livestock during the June heat wave, according to Travis Martin with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
“From the site visits completed so far, the highest mortality has been 95-99%, mostly in the southern inlets of Puget Sound near Shelton (Hammersley, Oakland Bay, Totten, Little Skookum),” Martin said in an email.
“We definitely had regions of our beaches where we lost 90% of our shellfish,” said shellfish grower John Adams of Sound Fresh Clams and Oysters. “Everything that was in the higher level of the beach is dead, is gone.”
Adams says his farm, located on Little Skookum Inlet outside of Olympia, lost at least 30,000 animals.
They’re bracing for a second heat wave this week.
Many shellfish operations in south Puget Sound and Hood Canal reported losing the majority of of their saltwater livestock during the June heat wave, according to Travis Martin with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
“From the site visits completed so far, the highest mortality has been 95-99%, mostly in the southern inlets of Puget Sound near Shelton (Hammersley, Oakland Bay, Totten, Little Skookum),” Martin said in an email.
“We definitely had regions of our beaches where we lost 90% of our shellfish,” said shellfish grower John Adams of Sound Fresh Clams and Oysters. “Everything that was in the higher level of the beach is dead, is gone.”
Adams says his farm, located on Little Skookum Inlet outside of Olympia, lost at least 30,000 animals.
Shellfish farmers line up for disaster aid after heat wave decimates oysters and clams
Posted from kuow.org
State of Washington
Climate Change
Olympia
Shelton
Puget Sound
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
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After spending more than 30+ years in the Pacific NW, my opinion is forget the Oysters and Clams that are grown in the shallow bays such as Willapa Bay, Tillamook Bay, Netarts Bay, etc. They have always had a muddy, bland taste to them. The colder, deep water bay oysters and clams grown around Seattle in Puget Sound and The Straits of Juan DeFuca are sweeter, firmer and have an overall quality infinitely better than the shallow water ones.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
PO1 John Johnson There's a Reason One of My Thumbs is Shorter than the Other. Cut if Off with a Razor Clam in Sinclair Inlet, Puget Sound.
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