SHELLFISH NUMBERS ARE up at Sequim Bay State Park and the increased populations will lead to an extended harvest season.
An abundance of butter clam, native littleneck clams and oysters at the state park near Sequim has led the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to lengthen the upcoming harvest season.
A three-month long season for clams and oysters is scheduled to run Friday, April 1, through Thursday, June 30.
“We’ve enhanced that beach with oysters in recent years, so those populations look pretty good, and the clam numbers have increased as well,” said Phillipa Kohn, a state shellfish biologist who works out of Fish and Wildlife’s Port Townsend office.
Kohn said that oyster seeding occurs during summer months, and her office is gearing up to lay down more Pacific oyster seedlings.
“The basic lifestyle is to seed in the summer and then expect to see adult, harvestable oysters in three to five years,” Kohn said.
Pacific oysters are a non-native species that originate in Japan and are the most commercially grown species of oyster in the world.
“The [Crassostrea] gigas has good growth, good flavor, and we can get seed from them from commercial growers for a low price,” Kohn said.
Native Olympia oysters were harvested to near depletion in previous decades, so Fish and Wildlife focuses on providing recreational opportunities for Pacific oysters.
“We do plant Olympias, there are some Fish and Wildlife-led restoration sites in Puget Sound,” Kohn said.
She pointed to the work of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, which works to rebuild the native stocks of the smaller, slower growing Olympia oysters at 19 locations.
“The Puget Sound Restoration Fund has a spot in Manchester where they use broodstock gigas to restore populations,” Kohn said.
For more information on the restoration of Olympia oysters, visit tinyurl.com/PDN-Olympias.
Other open beaches
A number of beaches in Clallam and Jefferson counties are open to shellfish harvest.
Kohn encouraged clam and oyster harvesters to check Fish and Wildlife’s recreational shellfishing website at tinyurl.com/PDN-Shellfish16.
The public can find out which beaches are in-season, maps to beach areas containing the largest shellfish concentrations and links to county health department pages wherein toxin closure information also can be found.
New halibut measures
Washington’s annual halibut catch quota remains the same this year as in 2015 (214,110 pounds), but adjustments to the halibut fishing season have been made.
Heather Reed, coastal policy coordinator for Fish and Wildlife attempted to clarify the previously announced changes to the state’s upcoming halibut fishery.
“Here and elsewhere, fishery managers are working to keep pace with the growing demand on the resource,” Reed said. “Strong catch rates continue to draw anglers to this popular fishery each year.”
This has led to halibut catch exceeding harvest quota in Puget Sound (which includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca) for the past four years.
As a result, this year’s halibut season in Marine Areas 6-10 will be reduced from 11 days to eight days.
That fishery will run at the same time as Marine Area 5 (Sekiu), where the season has been limited to eight days since 2013.
The other major change this year is in Marine Areas 3 and 4 (La Push and Neah Bay), which will open May 7, May 12 and May 14, and then close for a catch assessment.
“Last year, we scheduled four days of fishing before the catch assessment, but we had to cancel the fourth day on short notice because the quota was taken sooner than ever before,” Reed said.
“This year’s season is designed to avoid that situation.”
And that’s a positive development all around for halibut anglers, lodging sites and charter operators.
After the assessment, the halibut fishery off LaPush and Neah Bay will reopen in late May, if sufficient capacity remains under the quota in each marine area.
Razor clam digs
A three-day razor clam dig running Friday through Sunday at Mocrocks Beach was recently approved by state shellfish managers.
The Mocrocks digs are scheduled on the following dates and low tides:
■ Friday: 8:31 a.m., 0.7 feet.
■ Saturday: 9:06 a.m., 0.6 feet
■ Sunday: 9:42 a.m., 0.7 feet.
Long Beach also is open to razor clam harvest daily through March 31.
A full list of low tides in March is posted at tinyurl.com/PDN-Razors16.
Fish and Wildlife also tentatively approved digs at Long Beach, Mocrocks and Copalis in April.
Diggers can take 15 razor clams per day and are required to keep the first 15 they dig.
Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.
All diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2015-16 fishing license to harvest razor clams on any beach.
Licenses can be purchased from fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from license vendors around the state.
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Outdoors columnist Michael Carman appears here Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 57050 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
