4
T he C olumbia P ress
February 21, 2020
Cindy Yingst
A view of Willapa Bay from Oys-
terville Sea Farms.
Shellfish: Bay study
to help oyster farmers
Continued from Page 1
aquacultures in the United States,
cultivating a quarter of the nation’s
oysters. The continuous degradation
of commercial shellfish cultivation is
essential to protect the local econo-
my, Wright said.
Floods, construction and other
human disturbances of the past 30
years have seriously harmed the
bays, Wright said. While there have
been plenty of studies on the rivers,
ocean and coast, it’s hoped the bay
study will fill in the missing gap.
The two harbors have been neglect-
ed for a long time because they’re
rural, said Mike Nordin, manager of
the Grays Harbor Conservation Dis-
trict, which is coordinating the study
with partners Pacific County, Grays
Harbor County, Pacific Conservation
District, the Port of Grays Harbor
and area Indian tribes.
“There are two drivers for this
study,” Nordin said. “One is to fig-
ure out the relationship between
sediment transport/sediment move-
ment, and how shellfish growers can
get more information to make better
decisions.”
Grays Harbor has lost several hun-
dred acres that used to be viable for
oysters and Willapa Bay has prob-
lems with burrowing shrimp.
At the same time, the regional agen-
cies have other projects focusing on
invasive species, farmer education,
drainage and more, all hoping to im-
prove the bays’ health.
“We’re just going to see where this
goes,” Nordin said. “The sediment
study will wrap up by the end of the
calendar year, but we hope it leads
to getting mitigation projects off the
ground over the next few years.”