The Oyster Society is for people who walk out at low tide with a knife and a license, eat a wild Pacific oyster where it grew, and want that beach open next year. Washington has the best public oyster beaches in the country. Let's keep them that way.
These are state rules from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They are simple, they are enforced, and they are why the beaches are still full of oysters.
The ones you eat on the beach count. Kids need their own limit, and an adult may shuck a child's oysters if the child helped gather them.
Anything smaller goes back. Small ones may be native Olympia oysters, which took a century to start coming back.
Shuck every oyster on the beach where you found it and leave the shell at the same tide height. Shells carry oyster drills and disease between beaches, and they are next year's habitat.
Hood Canal, south Puget Sound and the Strait have dozens of public tidelands with oysters. The Society's first project is a plain, current, one-page guide to the public oyster beaches, with seasons, access and parking, in one place. It is in the works. Until then, the WDFW list and the DOH map together are the answer.
Commercial growers have a trade association. Agencies have mandates. Recreational harvesters have a license and a tide table. The Oyster Society exists to put the recreational harvester's voice in the room, and to make the information easy.
Closures follow crowding, rule-breaking and pollution. We promote the habits that keep public tidelands open: limits, shucking in place, filling holes, packing out trash.
Seasons, safety status, tides and access, gathered in one place and kept current, so a first-timer can plan a good day without reading three agency sites.
Olympia oyster restoration, water quality monitoring and biotoxin research all need friends. We point members to the work and, as funds allow, support it.
Oystering is a Pacific Northwest tradition going back thousands of years. The best way to protect it is to teach it: recipes, shucking, and the etiquette of a shared beach.
Every dollar goes to the program. There are no paid staff. Donations are made to the Razor Clam Society, the 501(c)(3) that runs the Oyster Society, and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
The Oyster Society is a program of the Razor Clam Society, a Washington nonprofit corporation and IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 47-5246498. Please note "Oyster Society" with your gift so it is applied to this program.