Oyster Blog
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We can't get over this ridiculous spider crab. The barnacles aren't actually over his eyeballs, so he can still see, but still. It's too silly. Read more about spider crab, and see a video of one without barnacle goggles, in...
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Chitons are ubiquitous on the beach. We believe the one pictured below is a woody chiton, or Mopalia lignosa. (It may also be a mossy chiton, visit this site if you care about the differences between the two.) Species in...
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During last week's geoduck dig Nathan found this horse mussel sticking straight up out of the sand. There are a lot of horse mussels on the beach, but because they live out deep you only see them on really low...
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A red algal bloom started last week near Hoodsport, and slowly worked its way north. Today it hit the beaches at Hama Hama. Ever since the bloom started we've been getting calls from people concerned about red tide. The water...
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Trifecta! A Pacific oyster, a blood oyster (see earlier post), and a kumamoto. Like the Pacific, the kumamoto oyster (Crassostrea sikamea) originally hails from Japan. Some people think the kumo is a variety of Pacific (Crassostrea gigas) that evolved in...
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Follow this link to a Seattle Times article about abalone in Puget Sound, complete with a video of the little creatures moving around.
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Cousin Jesse pulled this thing up with his shrimp pot yesterday during the last day of the recreational shrimp season. It's about 5 feet long, and is rigid at the base and flexible at the top, kind of like a...
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Sandworms (genus Nephtys) live in the mid-intertidal to deep-sea area. We found this worm while digging for littleneck clams at the edge of the Hama Hama delta. They are nocturnal predators, and use the proboscis to capture their prey: small...
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Mystery solved! To everyone except native Lilliwaupians the blood oyster is known as a rock oyster, or jingle shell. Officially, the animal is called Pododesmus cepio. Other names include Pacific jingle, blister shell, false jingle shell, green false jingle shell,...
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We don't know what this is. And neither did these three graybeards, who between them have nearly a century and a half of experience in the Hood Canal oyster industry: Nathan is the only one who wasn't shocked at the...
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While cleaning the seed racks Nathan stumbled upon a covey of molted (and apparently very sociable) hairy hermit crabs. Hermit crabs have soft, curled abdomens that have specialized pads on them to keep the crab in place once inside a...