[music and rushing water]
[music]
Narrator: In a new laboratory on the shores of Clam Bay
in Washington state,
hatchery manager Ryan Crim
carefully separates oyster larvae of different sizes.
He's looking for larger larvae that are ready to settle out
to form reefs in nearshore estuaries and bays.
These are Olympia oysters
the only species of oyster native to the Pacific Northwest.
Walt Dickhoff: In the coast of the United States,
we've lost eighty-five percent of our oyster beds.
In Puget Sound, the situation's even worse.
Betsy Peabody: Historically, there were ten thousand
to twenty thousand acres of dense aggregations of Olympia oysters
in the lower intertidal area.
It's considered one of the most imperiled habitat types,
and we have less than four percent of historic core populations.
Walt Dickhoff: Without oyster beds, the bottom
would be muddy or sandy,
but with oyster beds, they will support a lot of habitat;
other fish species can use them;
they keep the water clean;
they allow growth of eelgrass beds,
which provides habitat for crabs,
juvenile salmon, lots of organisms.
So, now that the oyster populations are down,
we're trying to rebuild them and our agency, NOAA,
established a new shellfish hatchery at the Manchester Research Station.
Narrator: The Kenneth K. Chew Native Shellfish Hatchery
is a key element of Washington State's Shellfish Initiative,
and was built to provide a facility right on Puget Sound,
that will grow young oysters and other native shellfish
in order to restore populations in the wild.
The facility is named for Kenneth Chew,
an early pioneer of shellfish culture science,
who envisioned a laboratory like this decades ago.
Kenneth Chew: I'm in awe about what has happened here today.
For many years we needed to have a special facility,
a hatchery facility, that deals with the basic science,
the technologies that are available now,
with molecular genetics and the things that are available,
so different from,
say, when I started forty, fifty years ago.
Narrator: Staff from the Puget Sound Restoration Fund,
NOAA's partner at the hatchery,
run the day to day operations.
As the weeks go on for these tiny oysters,
they'll move through a series of tanks,
each optimized to promote further growth.
Eventually they'll be outplanted along the shores of Puget Sound
and the goal is to restore 100 acres of native oyster habitat by 2020.
Betsy Peabody: So, to get to 100 acres,
we actually have to produce seed.
We can not operate without having the ability to
produce genetically diverse seed
so that we can outplant in areas where good,
structured native oyster beds historically existed,
and where they are no longer present.
And that's what NOAA has made possible at this new hatchery.
Walt Dickhoff: For this shellfish hatchery,
the old adage is that, "build it, and they will come" really applies,
because since we've completed the hatchery,
they are a number of researchers from state agencies,
universities, and tribes
who have come into our hatchery to start projects
on Olympia oyster restoration;
pinto abalone;
sea cucumber restoration;
rock scallops; genetic diversity of oysters;
the effects of ocean acidification on oysters;
a wide variety of people and projects.
Narrator: Out in Port Gamble Bay,
the Olympia oyster crew is preparing to outplant
another batch of genetically diverse animals,
which were grown to size in the hatchery.
The team will monitor these seeded populations
across Puget Sound over the years to come,
and what they learn will help them hone recovery efforts here,
as well as along other coastlines around the country.
In the end, the goal is to rebuild these diminished habitat types
one oyster at a time,
to provide healthier and productive ecosystems for both marine life,
and terrestrial residents alike.
[music]