A North Olympic Peninsula native is being brought back from the brink of extinction as a result of restoration programs.
From Discovery Bay to Port Angeles Harbor and in between, volunteers with Jefferson and Clallam counties’ Marine Resources Committees have reseeded the silver-dollar-size oysters, which have teetered on the verge of extinction for nearly a century.
Overharvesting in the late 1800s and pollution and habitat loss since then have decimated the delicate, tasty oyster that once flourished around Puget Sound.
The larger Pacific oyster, originally brought to the region from Japan, now dominates most of the Peninsula’s shorelines and oyster farming operations.
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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.
