Tribe celebrates Olympia oyster's rebound

By REBECCA COOK
The Associated Press

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The tiny, tasty oyster once covered south Puget Sound beaches, a staple in the diet and economy of local Indian tribes before pollution drove it to the brink of extinction during the 20th century.

Now the Squaxin Island Tribe is working to restore Olympias to their rightful dominance, and Allen, a tribal shellfish biologist, liked what he saw one morning this summer on the eastern shore of Squaxin Island.

"They're all over the place," he said. "This is dynamite."

Olympia oysters the tribe planted two years ago have spawned a successful wild-oyster bed. But why the fragile, fickle Olympias thrive on one beach and wither on another remains a mystery.

For biologists, it's a scientific puzzle. For tribal members, saving the Olympia oysters may be the key to preserving an important part of their culture.

"It was a constant food source for the tribes," said Jim Peters, natural-resources director for the Squaxin Island Tribe. They ate Olympias nearly every day: raw, steamed in fire pits on the beach, or dried and smoked. Families would string the oysters together and hang them in their rafters to dry, so garlands of oysters decorated every Squaxin Islander's home.

Small, with shells about the size of a silver dollar and oysters about the size of a quarter, the Olympias have a delicate and complex flavor that has been described as mild, salty-sweet, like fresh-cut grass, creamy, nutty and metallic.

To Squaxin Island tribal members old enough to remember when Olympia oysters were plentiful, they simply taste like home.

Squaxin Islanders also used Olympia oysters as currency in trade with other tribes, which is why piles of oyster shells have been found at ancient tribal sites hundreds of miles inland.

Trouble for the oysters began soon after white settlers arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The minutes of a tribal council meeting in the mid-1860s describe tribal shellfish growers complaining that pollution from timber mills was killing their oyster beds, according to Charlene Krise, executive director of the Squaxin Island Museum. By the 1940s, the Olympia oyster industry was wiped out. A few commercial growers kept a limited supply alive.
 
There's plenty of blame to go around for the decline: timber mills, farms, rapid population growth, invasive species, overharvesting. As Olympias died off, Pacific oysters were introduced to Puget Sound. They were hardier and easier to grow, and what they lacked in complex flavors they made up for in size.

Now Olympias are getting a second chance. Puget Sound water has gotten cleaner, thanks to tougher pollution laws and better conservation.

The Squaxin Island Tribe started working on Olympia restoration about 15 years ago, Peters said. In 2002 and 2003, with help from the nonprofit Puget Sound Restoration Fund, the tribe planted about 155,000 oyster seeds on three Squaxin Island beaches. In the past year, the oysters have made a comeback.

Allen and other tribal biologists hope to learn what they are doing right. Armed with calipers and a clipboard on the beach and a microscope back at the lab, Allen studies the wild-growing Olympias for answers.

"What's different about this beach?" he wonders out loud as he pulls his boat up to the oyster-strewn shore. Where do Olympia oysters naturally like to grow and what are the best conditions? Why do the larvae latch on to certain materials and not others? How do today's Olympia oysters differ from the ones Peters' ancestors knew?

Some clues are coming from an archaeological site on Eld Inlet, where scientists have found a deposit of oyster shells, called a midden, that's between 500 and 1,000 years old. Tribal biologist Ian Childs said they've discovered that while modern Olympias are round, the old shells grew in a teardrop shape, probably because they were more crowded.

What they really want to do is analyze the DNA of the old Olympia shells to learn about the world of the native Puget Sound oyster. The only problem, Childs said, is "lots of shells and no money."

The Squaxin Island Tribe is just one of several tribes, government agencies, businesses and conservation groups working to bring back the Olympia oyster. Since 1999, the Puget Sound Restoration Fund has planted nearly 5 million oyster seeds throughout Puget Sound and Hood Canal.

Major funding for the roughly $500,000 project has come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Squaxin Island tribal members look forward to when Olympia oysters will once again be an everyday meal instead of a rare treat.