Oyster Blog

Appearance: 1. "Like the leathery snout of an aardvark" 2. an "eye-catching," "monster . . . thing, of incredible longevity, with a certain . . . charisma." 3. a "homely" "behemoth of the beach" Texture of neck when live: 4. "much like the skin of your elbow when your arm is straightened" Taste: 5. Like the lobster of the clam family. 6. Rich without being at all fishy. Fresh, crisp. Surprisingly delicious. There's a lot of geoduck information out on the triple-W. Some of our favorites, which we quoted above (#1 and 2): this Seattle Times story, and a CDNN...

Pictured here is the Eccentric Sand Dollar, Dendraster excentricus, also known as the Pacific or West Coast sand dollar. The name 'eccentric' sounds intriguing...and makes you want to hang out with the scientist who came up with it...until you learn that it just refers to the fact that these little guys have an 'off-center' pattern. Sand dollars are echinoderms and in the same phylum as sea stars and sea cucumbers. Like sea stars, they have 5-part radial symmetry. They're covered in tube feet, which give the live animals a beautiful purple color. Tube feet and cilia on the bottom direct...

These are moon snail egg cases, not pieces of rubber that someone littered. Moon snails use sand and mucus to make the pliable cases. The eggs hang out in the case for a couple of months, then break free and become free-swimming larvae for a while before they settle down and become fully-realized moon snails. We know some humans who've followed a similar trajectory.

Normally Hood Canal is a quiet sort of place--its mirrored surface unbroken by wake of kayak, canoe, or motor boat. But each year, on the first two Saturdays in May, boaters come from near and far to test their wits and wiles against those of one of the Canal's most elusive but delicious inhabitants: the Hood Canal spot prawn. Here's a brief and incomplete tutorial in how to catch Hood Canal shrimp: 1. Make sure your boat makes it to the water. 2. Prepare cans of Friskies cat food to use as bait.   4. Remember: mechanical pot-pullers are for...

These two crab were just, um, minding their own business when they were rudely flipped over and inspected. The crab at the bottom of this photo is male, the crab at top is female. Notice the difference in the shapes of their abdomens? Male crab have a longer, thinner abdomen; female crab have a shorter, rounder abdomen. They mate in the spring and summer. The process takes several days. For a beautiful description of crab sex go here. It's illegal to catch female crab, so all the crab you see on the market are, or should be, males. These crab...