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Netarts Bay, a small bay on the north coast of Oregon, is the setting for a prime opportunity to restore native Olympia oysters. In better condition than many other estuaries where the native oyster was once abundant, Netarts offers sheltered, publicly owned tidal flats with plentiful, suitable habitat needed by native oysters.

The Nature Conservancy, together with partners including the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery, Oregon State University and local oyster growers, is rearing Olympia oysters in Netarts Bay. A restored oyster population will improve water quality through filtration. Shell reefs will increase habitat for other wildlife including juvenile salmon.

Conservationists are still learning about restoring Olympia oysters, so lessons learned here will provide valuable information for projects elsewhere, such as Oregon’s Yaquina and Coos bays, and Washington’s Puget Sound and Willapa Bay.

Introduced predators, such as the Japanese oyster drill, a species of snail, are present at Netarts but not abundant, as in other places, so there is both the urgent need and opportunity to control oyster pests before it’s too late.

Science in Action

Restoring native oysters to Netarts Bay involves reintroducing young oysters over several years, improving conditions in the bay, and controlling pests such as the Japanese oyster drill. Our goal is to place enough oysters in favorable conditions that they begin to reproduce naturally.

Beginning in 2005, the Conservancy has placed nearly five million oyster larvae into the one-acre project area of the bay. In 10 years, we expect to see a self-sustaining population of Olympia oysters fulfilling their natural role in the ecosystem — filtering water, improving water quality, maintaining algae at natural levels, and providing habitat for other species such as salmon, starry flounder, Dungeness crab, shiner perch, surf perch, anchovies, herring, Pacific lamprey, juvenile rockfish and myriad marine invertebrates.
 
For more information, download our oyster restoration fact sheet.

Oyster Fast Facts: 

• 85 percent of the world's oyster reefs have vanished.
• A single adult oyster can filter up to 25 gallons of water a day.
• Annual harvest of Olympia oysters in Washington reached 130,000 bushels by the 1890s. By 1910,  production declined to only 16,000 bushels a year. Harvest declines were similar in Oregon and California.
• Coasts, bays and estuaries contain some of the most productive yet altered ecosystems on Earth, which is why the Conservancy's Global Marine Initative targets the restoration and conservation of native shellfish, including the Olympia oyster.
• The Nature Conservancy operates more than 100 marine conservation projects in 22 countries and all coastal U.S. states.