Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee (JCMRC) volunteers have created a new half-acre of native Olympia oyster habitat at the south end of Discovery Bay.

The group’s goal is to jump-start an expansion of the small but thriving Olympia oyster population near the project site. With advice from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brady Blake, the JCMRC used a new, experimental, low-impact technique for Olympia oyster habitat restoration. With local, state and federal permits in hand, the group used a boat and crew to move 8 cubic yards of bagged shell to the project area at high tide.

Volunteers from the JCMRC and Washington State University Beach Watchers program then walked out on Saturday morning’s low tide to scatter whole Pacific oyster shells and crushed shell on the Discovery Bay tidal flats across the bay from the existing population, avoiding eelgrass as they worked. Cheryl Lowe, JCMRC coordinator, explained, “Larvae from the existing oyster population should settle on the new shell next spring, and the population is expected to slowly expand from there.”

Taylor Shellfish, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s Natural Resources Department and Port Discovery Seafarms provided valuable advice, donation of shell, and use of boat, crew and staging facilities.

The Olympia oyster once thrived in coves and sheltered inlets throughout Puget Sound, but its numbers are now only a fraction of historic populations. Olympia oysters help clean marine waters by filter-feeding on smaller particles than Pacific oysters do, removing nutrients in estuaries and tidal flats. They also provide habitat and food for many other species. For more information about the Marine Resources Committee, Olympia oysters and this restoration project, go to

jeffersonmrc.org.

Funding for this project was provided in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and supported by the Puget Sound Partnership and Northwest Straits Commission.