Taylor Shellfish, 5th Generation WA Oyster Farm, Facing 75% Oyster Larvae Mortality Rate
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The Taylors did not set out to fight climate change. But after decades of muddy hard work building a shellfish-farming empire along the shores of Puget Sound, Taylor Shellfish Farms was hit with a crisis: The rate of survival for their oyster larvae — the free-swimming, nearly invisible infant oysters — plunged roughly three-quarters. For oyster growers, this is huge. If an oyster grower doesn’t have baby oyster larvae, there’s no “seed” to morph into the prized mollusks served on the half shell at oyster bars around the world. Bill Taylor’s simple bottom line: “Without seed, you’re not in business any longer.”
Walking into Taylor Shellfish’s headquarters in the logging town of Shelton, you might forget the company’s elite status among shellfish producers. Tucked off Highway 101, Taylor’s offices are housed in a modest, mid-century rambler, formerly home to Bill Taylor’s Uncle Edwin and Aunt Norma. The conversion is somewhat incomplete; the kitchen still is outfitted with aged cupboards and appliances that recall the 1950s. Out back, the home’s large former chicken coop serves as a retail-sales space and a shellfish processing facility.
But despite the humble trappings, the truth is that Bill Taylor, along with his younger brother Paul and brother-in-law, Jeff Pearson, are co-owners of the largest farmed shellfish producer in the nation. The family business employs 750 workers, including Bill’s two daughters and five nieces, nephews and their spouses. Taylor Shellfish has operations in Washington, California, Hawaii, British Columbia, Hong Kong and Fiji. The company flies its renowned oysters, clams, geoduck and mussels to restaurants and markets internationally.
But oysters don’t happen without oyster babies. On the shores of an evergreen-lined bay in a canal of Puget Sound, the company produced more than 6 billion oyster larvae in 2016. Water from the canal is pumped to indoor larval tanks. In the swirling water, the mollusk babies look like nothing more than a cloud of silt. Over two to three weeks, they devour algae and steadily build their pearly shells.
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http://invw.org/2017/07/10/as-climate-change-turns-puget-sound-acidic-can-regions-signature-oysters-survive/
