Friday, May 23, 2014

New Hatchery to Help Restore Native Olympia Oysters in Puget Sound

Puget Sound's Native Olympia Oyster
(Maggie Freeman)


Restoration of Washington's native Olympia oysters, at less than 4% of their historic levels, took a step forward with the opening of the Kenneth K. Chew Center for Shellfish Research and Restoration hatchery. As part of a 10 year plan, the hatchery will focus on providing tribes and agencies a seed source to help rebuild the native population which was brought to near extinction from overharvesting and pollution.

Native Olympia (l) and Pacific (r)
 
Sea Grant: Restoration efforts at risk from non-native Pacific oyster
While the native Olympia oyster has shown signs of being able to adapt to lower pH levels ("ocean acidification") a larger challenge to restoration efforts may be found in the non-native Pacific oyster, introduced from Japan by the shellfish industry. The ability of the latter to grow quickly made it a more favorable "crop." However, this same ability has also caused Sea Grant to question whether the Pacific oyster presents a risk to the restoration efforts currently taking place in California. In a July 2, 2013 article, they noted the Pacific oyster "... has taken up residence in San Diego’s bays and lagoons and may be in the early stages of a full-fledged, non-native species invasion." The article went further and noted:
The traits that make it so suited to culture could also make it a formidable invader..."Our worry is that native oyster restoration efforts may backfire and we will end up creating habitat for the invasive oyster,” said Danielle Zacherl, a professor at Cal State Fullerton, who has been documenting the Pacific oyster’s spread in San Diego and Orange counties and is involved in native oyster bed restoration in Southern California.

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