Oysters among Washington State's Most Lucrative, Endangered Crops
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Spokesman-Review] by Jim Camden - December 19, 2017
Washington farms don't stop at the water's edge.
The state's oldest "crop" - or maybe its first commercial "livestock" - grows in the bays, coves and inlets of the Pacific Ocean and the Puget Sound, opening shells when the tide is in to pull nutrients out of the salty water and closing them tight against predators when the tide is out.
In 1851 - long before the Palouse hills were planted with wheat or the Okanogan Valley with apples - Washington oysters were harvested and shipped off to a waiting market in California, where Gold Rush miners were willing to pay top dollar for the...
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