Oyster Blog

A couple of weeks ago we harvested a boatload of geoduck. They took over the retail live tank and proceeded to squirt salt water all over the store, completely trashing the place. Dorothy, Ona, and Beth came by when the...

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...

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...

Last Saturday we spent almost all day hawking seafood in downtown Hoodsport as part of the town's annual Fourth of July festival. We sold bacon-wrapped oysters, barbecued oysters, shrimp cocktails, and steamed clams. It was social and small-town and fun....

It's been a dry, hot spring and summer in Western Washington, and we here at Hama Hama are declaring the raw oyster season over until fall. The reason? When the water gets warm, a naturally-occuring saltwater bacteria called Vibrio parahaemolyticus...

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...

We've had a string of really low tides this week, and so we sent the three graybeards out to dig geoduck and play in the mud. The old fashioned way to dig geoduck is to use a shovel and a...

sorry for the string of corny posts... we'll get serious soon. But we can't resist sharing this photo. Helena took it on a walk last fall, a season when the woods on the Olympic Peninsula are golden, fragrant, and full...

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...

Today our friend Preston stopped by with some wild morel and porcini mushrooms he'd recently picked somewhere east of the Cascade Mountains. Preston-- who probably knows all of the Olympic Peninsula's sweet spots for both wild mushrooms and good surf-- ...

Check out this Seattle Times article about low ocean pH and the oyster industry in Willapa Bay. The video that accompanies the article is pretty good, especially the very last bit, where an 8 year old oysterman steals the spotlight.