5/22, Sunday, drizzle. At 8:30am, a dozen of us showed up at the parking lot of Pacific Seafood in Bay City (address: 5150 Hayes Oyster Dr., Bay City, OR 97107) for the free oyster tour, made possible by the generous support by
Friends of Netarts Bay, Tillumook County Salt Dog Funds, Pacific Oyster Company, and Whiskey Creek Hatchery. Everyone else in the gorup seems to be from the area. 7 of us got on the shuttle bus operated by Brian Cameron of
Tillamook Eco Adventures. The rest drove their own vehicles. I'm very happy to be on the bus. Brian is an excellent tour guide who leads various tours in the area in summer. He's also a part time writer, so full of local history and modern information.
Our first stop is at Bay Ocean Peninsula County Park. First, because of low tide at the time. We walked across the MUDDY bay to visit a Pacific Seafood Oyster Bed. Single oyster buried here and there. At one of the beds we visited (the closest one to shore), oysters are clustered on lines. They look harvest size (~2 years). We were told about the agriculture runoff from the diary farms upland. There're ~5 rivers drain to Tillamook Bay. When water samples failed the quality and salinity test, the bay would be closed to harvest for 10 days. The flat estuary is so muddy that whenever we stopped to listen, we slowly sunk deeper. At one point or another, one of us would have trouble lifting a foot, or the foot out but the rubber boot still in the mud. On the way back, the water was rising a bit, made it worse. Once we reached the grass, our guide Christine (also the organizer) picked some sea bean, which looks like weed, for us to taste. Not bad.
Our next stop is
Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts, where Christine's husband works. It's the largest shellfish hatchery in U.S, and the first successful shellfish hatchery business. It provides oyster, geoduck, and mussel seed for commercial as well as restoration efforts. Whiskey Creek has also been at the forefront of ocean acidification research and adaptation. T
his computer is the first in commercial use to test the water acidity, oxygen level and other measurement. This is a fascinating place. Christine's husband showed us all aspect of his work, from spawning, to larvae in microscopes, to growing algae to feed the larvae, attaching larvae to shells, as well as how to make triploid oysters. Both of them are super nice and knowledgeable and happy to answer questions. I don't use Facebook anymore. If you do, please like their page.
Last stop, back where we parked: Pacific Seafood/Oyster processing plant. It's unlucky that no one is working today. So we (and every customer at
The Fish Peddler restaurant and market on the ground floor) saw the sparkling clean shucking and packing room. The shells were collected and had to be sent to WA for commercial washing (Oregon doesn't have a plant to do this) before shipped back here to be reused.
Before returning home, drove to Rockway Beach on route of north bay at Barview. There were very few people. Wide beach stretch as far as eye can see.
Our first stop is at Bay Ocean Peninsula County Park. First, because of low tide at the time. We walked across the MUDDY bay to visit a Pacific Seafood Oyster Bed. Single oyster buried here and there. At one of the beds we visited (the closest one to shore), oysters are clustered on lines. They look harvest size (~2 years). We were told about the agriculture runoff from the diary farms upland. There're ~5 rivers drain to Tillamook Bay. When water samples failed the quality and salinity test, the bay would be closed to harvest for 10 days. The flat estuary is so muddy that whenever we stopped to listen, we slowly sunk deeper. At one point or another, one of us would have trouble lifting a foot, or the foot out but the rubber boot still in the mud. On the way back, the water was rising a bit, made it worse. Once we reached the grass, our guide Christine (also the organizer) picked some sea bean, which looks like weed, for us to taste. Not bad.
Our next stop is Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Netarts, where Christine's husband works. It's the largest shellfish hatchery in U.S, and the first successful shellfish hatchery business. It provides oyster, geoduck, and mussel seed for commercial as well as restoration efforts. Whiskey Creek has also been at the forefront of ocean acidification research and adaptation. T
his computer is the first in commercial use to test the water acidity, oxygen level and other measurement. This is a fascinating place. Christine's husband showed us all aspect of his work, from spawning, to larvae in microscopes, to growing algae to feed the larvae, attaching larvae to shells, as well as how to make triploid oysters. Both of them are super nice and knowledgeable and happy to answer questions. I don't use Facebook anymore. If you do, please like their page. 
Last stop, back where we parked: Pacific Seafood/Oyster processing plant. It's unlucky that no one is working today. So we (and every customer at The Fish Peddler restaurant and market on the ground floor) saw the sparkling clean shucking and packing room. The shells were collected and had to be sent to WA for commercial washing (Oregon doesn't have a plant to do this) before shipped back here to be reused. 
Before returning home, drove to Rockway Beach on route of north bay at Barview. There were very few people. Wide beach stretch as far as eye can see.
