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Like many people in the Pacific Northwest, PSRF took full advantage of the long summer days, filling them with adventure, exploration, and restoration action. Read on!
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The Kelp Expedition: A long-awaited voyage
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At the end of 2019, we began planning an expedition with a flotilla of partners to see together what tribes have long known about kelp forests and their importance to our many ways of life. Intentionally outside the box, the kelp expedition was a chance to weave together our different perspectives and resources to create something larger than our individual parts. Akin to what a kelp forest does so beautifully in the marine ecosystem. In like spirit, we felt that our collective efforts throughout the region needed to be joined creatively to power kelp conservation and recovery ahead.
After many twists and turns, we took the leap into kelp forests this past summer.
Here’s a quick snap shot of the first-ever Kelp Expedition in Puget Sound, July 15-23, 2021. A total of 184 unique individuals representing over 40 entities participated actively in a tour-de-force 8-day expedition exploring, surveying, sampling, and chronicling kelp forests from Freshwater Bay to Olympia with power boats, kayaks, paddle boards, SCUBA divers, snorkelers, and drones. The PSRF Habitat Team alone collected more than 50 pages of data! In addition to on-water, underwater, and above-water work, the expedition included two gatherings brimming with seafoods made possible by healthy kelp forests. The first gathering was held at Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend featuring a moving welcome from Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council Vice-Chair Loni Grinnell-Greninger (in photo below), the 7th generation descendant of Chief Chetzemoka. The culminating event was co-hosted by the Squaxin Island Tribe in Olympia with presentations by Squaxin Island Tribal Chair Kris Peters, Vice Chair Charlene Krise, State Senator Christine Rolfes, Washington State Department of Natural Resources Deputy Supervisor for Aquatics Alex Smith, and Tom Mumford (kelp guru extraordinaire).
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Reporters, writers, and filmmakers got in on the action wherever possible, including King 5’s Evening Magazine, and the Port Townsend Leader, with more features to come in The Seattle Times, Salish Sea Currents, PBS' Changing Seas, NOAA, and elsewhere. Social media posts during the expedition were boosted by skilled communicators at NOAA, Puget Sound Partnership, Washington Sea Grant, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. We also had two intrepid filmmakers, Florian Graner and Gina Truesdell, who chronicled the expedition every step of the way, with videos to come in the months ahead.
Not surprisingly, the kelp expedition also included some fishing here and there as the Chinook sport fishery opened seemingly miraculously in various marine areas as we travelled from the Strait of Juan de Fuca into Puget Sound.
Finally, PSRF's Creative Engagement Strategist, Hannah Garfield (with help from many) developed an exquisite kelp StoryMap to capture the larger ecological and cultural importance of kelp forests, describe the expedition, and share paths to collective action.
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The expedition was by no means the only progress we made this summer!
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We have been swimming in abs this year, racking up some big accomplishments:
Our largest outplant of juvenile abalone to date: PSRF along with WDFW outplanted ~10,000 juvenile abalone to ten restoration sites in the San Juan Archipelago in late May.
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Another successful spawning season: We ran a COVID-approved spawning season and produced 1.4 million larvae! More than enough to fill all 96 setting tanks available at the Kenneth K. Chew Center for Shellfish Research & Restoration and new setting tanks at the Seattle Aquarium! These recently settled abalone will be reared for a year before being outplanted into the wild.
Satellite facilities in full swing: This year marks the first time we've settled larval abalone at a satellite rearing facility (pictured below). The Seattle Aquarium now houses a total of 12 tanks of newly settled abalone along with 18 tanks of ~9,500 juvenile abalone that were too small to outplant this past season. In addition, Port Townsend Marine Science Center houses ~1,500 juvenile abalone. These satellite facilities, with the extra space and care provided, are essential to the abalone program's growth. We are endlessly grateful to the funders and staff for keeping these satellite nurseries going.
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Larval pinto abalone being loaded up to be transported to our partner satellite rearing facility, The Seattle Aquarium. Photo by Josh Bouma, PSRF Pinto Abalone Director.
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Olympia Oysters on the Rebuild
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Our longest-standing program - Olympia oyster rebuilding - shows no sign of slowing down. Activities this year included:
Port of Seattle oyster enhancement: In July we partnered with the Port of Seattle to spread 200 bags of Olympia spat on shell in Smith Cove, Seattle (pictured below). We had the highest oyster set ever when these oysters were settled in PSRF's hatchery and were thrilled to find that they survived the late June heat wave. This native oyster enhancement is one of several actions taken by the Port in their Blue Carbon Project.
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Port of Seattle spat on shell spreading in Smith Cove with Port team. Photo by Hilary Hayford, PSRF Habitat Research Director.
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New project, Hood Canal Shellfish Initiative: In June we were able to dig into a new project to assess Olympia oyster restoration opportunities in Hood Canal. We spent more than a week scouring the intertidal this summer assessing habitat suitability and current oyster resources, logging environmental variables, evaluating previous projects, and working with our partners - Great Peninsula Conservancy, the Skokomish Tribe, and WDFW. In late September, Great Peninsula Conservancy will deliver the curriculum they have developed on water quality and oyster restoration to 6th grade classes from Bremerton public schools who will be visiting field sites in lower Hood Canal.
Heat dome impacts: At the end of June the Pacific Northwest suffered an intensive heat wave that far exceeded normal summer high temperatures. Unfortunately, the year's lowest low tides occurred on the same days as the extreme heat. The habitat team has joined a group of researchers resurveying sites, compiling data on negative impacts to shellfish in Washington and BC.
Olympia oyster genetics: We are collaborating with NOAA scientist, Dr. Mackenzie Gavery, to compare the genetic structure of hatchery-produced Olympia oyster seed to wild populations. While this work was stalled because of the COVID-19 shutdown, we recently finished the last of the lab-work and all the data are in! We are currently running the analyses and Dr. Gavery will present the initial results at the September conference of the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association/National Shellfisheries Association-Pacific Coast Section.
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This September we took a quick break to enjoy our annual staff harvest day. This was the first time the whole staff had been in one place since the pandemic began. For some, it was the first time meeting in-person.
It was a glorious day filled with all sorts of harvested goodies, with 20 species transformed into 17 dishes by an unstoppable team - whether in the field or on the food front.
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See-you-laters and Hellos
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The harvest party was a chance to send Jackelyn Garcia, our 2020-2021 WCC Hatchery Technician and 2020 summer intern, off onto her next grand adventure. She is heading to graduate school at Western Washington University (WWU) to study biotoxins in native clams. We are forever grateful for her tireless work during a most challenging year and look forward to watching her take WWU by storm!
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In October, we'll gladly welcome Rachel Dalthorp as our 2021-2022 WCC Hatchery Technician! Rachel comes to us having earned her Certificate of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences from Bellingham Technical College, after completing her undergraduate work at WWU.
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In the Media
- Recovery effort aims to restore pinto abalone mollusks that once flourished in Salish Sea. The Seattle Times, September 2021.
- An Amazon rainforest of the sea fights for survival beneath Puget Sound. King 5's Evening Magazine, September 2021.
- Kelp is struggling in central and south Puget Sound. Are Whatcom’s kelp beds next?. Bellingham Herald, September 2021.
- ‘Kelp Expedition’ stops in PT for research, celebration. Port Townsend Leader, August 2021.
- Saving Native Oysters:Conservation aquaculture could bring more native oysters to plates and estuaries along the west coast. The Current, UCSB, 2021.
- Research Article: Conservation aquaculture as a tool for imperiled marine species: Evaluation of opportunities and risks for Olympia oysters, Ostrea lurida. Ridlon, A. et al., 2021. PLOS One.
- Research Article: Conservation of Marine Foundation Species: Learning from Native Oyster Restoration from California to British Columbia. Ridlon, A. et al., 2021. Estuaries and Coasts.
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