Oyster Blog
-
The ideal oyster is cup-shaped with a wide, fluted edge tapering towards the hinge. Healthy, growing oysters are very fluted and frequently very colorful, whereas an oyster that's starting to atrophy will have rounded, colorless edges. The oyster above was...
-
Underside of a sea star, up close. The entrance to the mouth is covered by a mass of tube feet. The mouth opens up into the mobile cardiac stomach, which leads to a fixed stomach, which leads to the anus,...
-
Spring is taking its sweet time getting here.
-
Sea stars, the echinoderms formerly known as starfish, have neither brains nor blood. Their circulatory system uses filtered sea water, and their central nervous system is spread out among the rays, or legs, which scientists believe communicate sensory information to...
-
Hood Canal, circa 2008. The near dot in the picture is a seal, the far dot is a boat. In the mid 1800s, before Washington was a state, civic minded leaders in the territory decided that they needed to do...
-
Here are two grainyhand hermits (Pagarus granosimanus) locked hand in hand. Or claw in shell. The larger male hermit crab, on the left, has his small left claw, which he normally uses for eating, firmly clamped down on the shell...
-
The stork recently dropped off a crate of oyster seed from a California hatchery. Here's a handful of them: Jose and Cleo spent an afternoon putting the babies into grow-out bags: which will protect the seed...
-
There are two types of oyster eater: those who are born loving oysters, and those who grow into the taste. For one local dog, the oyster epiphany came last Saturday at an informal campfire gathering in Lilliwaup. Since puppyhood Area...
-
John and Juan at the shucking table. Roberto and Nathan. Roberto's hand is blurry because it's moving wicked fast. We only shuck oyster clusters, and save the single oysters to sell in the shell. The shuckers have to shuck both...
-
Long Live the Kings, a non-profit group working to restore native salmon populations, has just completed a 12-year steelhead restoration program on the Hamma Hamma River. The project has gotten great coverage from the Kitsap Sun, check it out here....
-
Pacific oysters can grow really, really big if left to their own devices. We keep this monster oyster shell in our store to show to interested customers. It also goes on tour with us occasionally...down to Portland to decorate our...
-
Hermit Crab in Moon Snail Shell Fragment This lovely creature is a Hairy Hermit (Pagurus hirsutiusculus)--a species easily identified by the white bands around its walking legs (which you can clearly see in the middle photo). It came in...