Puget Sound Is Becoming Threat To Shellfish Industry
Low PH in ocean water big concern for local harvesters

Q13 FOX News
Darren Dedo
8:33 p.m. PDT, August 2, 2010

DABOB BAY— It's a multi-million dollar business that depends on Puget Sound to help it thrive. But, those very waters could be killing the shellfish industry. Scientists say the Sound is becoming more acidic and oysters are dying because of it.

Deep inside big barrels of water at Taylor Shellfish Farms at Dabob Bay is a marine cash crop. Soon, the larvae inside them will grow into shelled oysters. But, Bill Dewey with Taylor Shellfish Farms says harvesting them hasn't been easy.

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"Well, for the last few years it's become probably the most dominant issue for the West Coast Shellfish industry. If you don't have seed you don't have an industry, we've had a major problem producing it," said Dewey.

That's because the very waters that are supposed to be nurturing the tiny creatures are instead killing them. Richard Feely with NOAA says Puget Sound is becoming more acidic, more corrosive because the seawater has been absorbing so much man-made carbon dioxide over time.

"When you have the water incoming into the hatchery and it's very low PH waters it can kill off the larvae of many of our oyster species," said Feely.

It's a problem Bill Dewey has seen firsthand.

"When it gets that low the oyster shells on this young oyster larvae in the hatchery start to dissolve, essentially dissolving faster than they can grow a new shell," said Dewey.

NOAA and the University of Washington are studying the problem through a system of ocean buoys, dozens of them deployed off the Washington and Oregon Coasts.

UW professor Jan Newton says the buoys will collect valuable data for scientists.

"The first of its kind to make measurements off the coast of Washington not only for the Ocean acidification status, but also for oxygen and phytoplankton blooms," said Newton.

Scientists hope to use the data to figure out patterns in the PH level, so harvesters know the safest time to grow.

Bill Dewey says Taylor Shellfish Farms is using its own high-tech equipment to do the same. What they've found so far has been troubling.

"We started to see the PCO2 levels coming up PH dropping, and so we're worried that we're going to start to see affects on our production," said Dewey.

There is no easy fix. Scientists believe the high acid levels we're seeing right now has been building up in Puget Sound for decades. Bill Dewey believes the best way to protect future generations of oysters is stop polluting the environment right now.

"Even if we change carbon emissions, policies today, we still have got 50 more years of problems coming our way," said Dewey.

In the meantime with a lot of science and a little good luck these babies will grow into shelled oysters, and harvesters who depend on them can keep thriving too.

NOAA and UW researchers will continue to monitor the acid levels from the ocean buoys. Information will be collected from them over the next few months.


http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-080210-acidoyster,0,3413431.story

Link no work???

fp

fp, try cutting and pasting the link in your browser. Worked for me.

Boy, it sure seems to me that the dissolved CO2 levels increasing (which lowers the PH) is yet another likely environmental effect of the CO2 levels in the AIR going up. Call me crazy.

The thing about this is that UNLIKE the Global Warming debate, you have an obvious/explicit link between CO2 in air diffusing into sea-water. Vs. the in-direct effects of heat absorption.

I wonder how the RWWJ's will deny this. Let's watch...

Canary in the coal mine.................

I just threatened some oysters with eradication the other night. Since they were in the half shell, I don't think their chances of survival would have been any better if I hadn't eaten them. All fun aside, this ocean acidification stuff is way worse than the canary in the coal mine. It's already too late to avoid, and it's only going to get worse . . . and now for the good news. Oh, wait, there is no good news about declining ocean productivity.

Sg

nothing towards you Dave, but the idiots that wrote that article should know that Dabob Bay is the Canal, not the Puget Sound... our cabin is located basically in Dabob Bay, and i personally have seen the decline in oysters over the last 20 years... i have scars on my arm from falling on them... 20 years ago, if you fell on our beach, you had a trip to the hospital, now, you would be lucky to find 20 oysters to eat without searching pretty darn good for them.. unless you like huge fat pork chop sized ones...

Clams too. On west side of Bainbridge, we used to be able to dig anything we needed in 20 minutes. Neighbors on either side for 1/4 mile don't like them, so there was no over-harvest. Now...takes 45 minutes for half a bucket.

another thing people dont realize that was going on in Dabob, and Quilcene Bay, and Jackson Cove, is that there was a guy a couple years ago that was busted stealing oysters from peoples beaches out there, and selling them in his buisiness based out of Quilcene... he had a large hand in the downturn of the amounts on peoples beaches, i think he was taking something like 3-400,000 pounds of them a year until he got caught... and selling them on the east coast... with the low DO content and all that is talked about it, i still cannot understand how the Cutthroat populations out there arent affected, and are thriving... maybe it has to do with how close to shore they swim, with the waves crashing and moving the water around, churning everything up, unlike the stagnant waters in other deeper parts... not sure tho... something is going on tho..

Seems a bit harsh to categorize anyone who thinks Puget Sound includes Hood Canal as an idiot. However, I'll even bet there are some idiots out there who think Dabob Bay is not part of Hood Canal. As originally defined by the people handing out names, Puget Sound started at the Tacoma narrows heading south. Later some idiots started including Admiralty Inlet within the broader definition of Puget Sound. Now a whole lot of idiots think thats just the way it is. More recently, a bunch of other idiots rolled everything inside of Neah Bay together into a newly defined and all-inclusive Salish Sea. Where do all of these idiots come from?

The oyster deal is real. They can overcome the problem at the hatcheries by buffering the water, but natural production of a variety of important invertebrate species may be impacted with major implications for a lot of other things we've taken for granted in our lifetimes.

like i said before, i use the word idiot loosely, never said you were, but the Canal is the Canal, the Sound is the Sound, if the Canal was the Sound, the Duckabush, Dosewallips, Quilcene, Hamma Hamma, and Skokomish rivers would be considered Puget Sound rivers, instead they are Olympic Pennisula/Canal rivers... if they are going to classify it as the Sound, then theres an a$$load of maps that need to be rewritten... and Dabob is basically in the heart of the Canal, and probably one of the largest bay in the Canal, being split by the Toandos Penninsula... technically, the Canal is like a suburb of the PS, but that doesnt mean it is the PS (to me), just like outlying citys in Seattle arent considered Seattle, they are suburbs, and their own cities... just my opinion is all, mixing things up and combining crap only confuses people even further...

But what about listings? Hood Canal steel are Puget Sound listed...what kind of idiot said Hood Canal steelhead were in Puget Sound?

maybe they are listed due to the 2 waters being connected, and both are completely screwed in the first place, so just combine it... i dont know the answer to that... all i was gettin at, is the news is always screwed up, look at thier facebook pages, they constantly post wrong stuff, or only part of stuff with no details and get railed for it all the time... the Canal is the Canal, and the Sound is the Sound is all im saying.. 2 completely different systems...

everybody just throw a box of baking soda in the Big Quil and another in the 15 million dollar Tarboo Creek and all will be well again.

BTW, are these oysters native?????

Rocky Mtn Oysters aren't threatened...tax subsidy for any new ad campaigns?

8:33 p.m. PDT, August 2, 2010 ??

if your talking about WD, yeah, he knows his sh!t... but if you are saying that oysters have not dissapeared from our beach, and that im full of it, you are completely wrong... take a drive past Wa Wa Pt on a low tide, and you will see for yourself...

some oysters? 600 feet of beach, and at low tide, is extremely wide, and used to be covered in oysters all the way to the sand... not anymore... they also were heavy right where the point makes the turn to the tip, heavily, now, they are ALL gone....our beach used to have probably 1-2 thousand oysters on it... now, theres like 500... if that, plus, finding all the monster geoduck shells and no ducks, is interesting in itself...that cabin has been in the family for over 50 years, my grandfather sold the other lots to the people on the point, and the other friend... none of wich can be sold to outside family parties... EVER, due to a contract that was signed...

like i said Marsha, ask Mark if you must... hes been on our beach hundreds of times... things happened there, and its wierd... certian things thrive, and some, arent around much...

Hood Canal is a fjord forming the western lobe, and one of the FOUR main basins of Puget Sound. However there are various definitions of the extent and boundaries of Puget Sound. The USGS defines Puget Sound as all the waters south of three entrances — the main entrance at Admiralty Inlet being a line between Point Wilson, on the Olympic Peninsula, and Point Partridge, on Whidbey Island; a second entrance at Deception Pass being a line from West Point, on Whidbey Island, to Deception Island and Rosario Head, on Fidalgo Island; and a third entrance at the south end of the Swinomish Channel, which connects Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay. UNDER THIS DEFINITION PUGET SOUND INCLUDES HOOD CANAL. But I can see why people argue the point.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound )

Friends, I have over 1000' feet of beach on the southern end of the canal. In the family for 80 years. We picked about 25k during oyster harvesting last year.

This subjects story - which is backed by very solid scientific research - has me very concerned and should have anyone who enjoys Puget Sound/Hood Canal oysters. It also concerns the indusry (ie: JOBS) which help keep the Puget Sound waters clean. If this continues (and I supect it will) we will see many sets of young oysters fail to naturally spawn. This will effect the industry but it will also effect some fishing and the environment overall.

MANY seabirds and fish thrive over olderr oyster beds, which are a huge benefit to the ecosystem for small fish (Juvenile salmon), and Sea Run trout. Older beds are extremely rich in biomass supporting Loons, grebes, mergansers, scoters, varous fish large and small. This in turns helps raccoons, eagles, seals and other larger creatures we would never want to live without.

Having said all that, the Pacific Oyster is a non native oyster, but its been here for over 150 years and can be considered an invasive native at this stage. I rarely locate Olympic Oysters unless I find a few small ones on a rock here and there. Most native oyster reefs in the world have been wiped out. Farmed Oysters (via natural sets or non natural) generate over 100 million dollars to Washington each year.

Oysters dont usually grow on points much in my experience but they tend to cluster in Bays and get washed around points due to storms, strong tides etc. All locations are a little unique and it often depends on the beach type (rocky/sandy/muddy) and tide flow plus storms effect.

I sure hope we dont see an end to the Hood Canal Osters, they are truly amazing and delicious! Great for local income and a source of pride for Western Washingtonians.

Here's another related article:
Acidity in ocean killed NW oysters, new study says
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017961101_oceanacidification12m.html

if the oyster shells are dissolved before they can grow (due to acidification) it could explain why he has seen a decline in his oysters. They simply are not able to respoduce as they once did.