The First Half of the 20. Century: Pacific Northwest John McCabe

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West Coast oystermen in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia started the 20th century behind the proverbial eight ball. Over-harvesting had rendered the petite, yet highly tasty native Olympia Oyster (Ostrea lurida) almost nonexistent after the Gold Rush days had ended. Although there were plenty of experienced oystermen around the Willapa Bay and formidable processing plants stood ready to go to work, there were simply not enough Olympia oysters around anymore to paint a promising picture of the future. By the early 1900s, Puget Sound oystermen had managed to continue to produce limited commercial quantities of the Olympia oyster. They had started to build special diked compounds in the intertidal zone of South Puget Sound (around Totten Inlet). These "claires" of sorts, helped their Olympia oysters survive the extended exposure to winter chills, a danger which was compounded by the seasonally low tides during the night. Maintaining an insulating layer of water above the oysters made all the difference between life and death of the Olympia oysters. Limited quantities were also produced further north in Puget Sound (in places like Samish Bay).

Meanwhile, Willapa Bay oystermen tried to duplicate the success California oystermen had achieved since 1869 with the importation of young Eastern oysters , but it proved to be a tough act to follow. The Willapa Bay, with its soft and silty soils, were a tough place to grow an oyster species that much preferred firm soils. Countless Eastern oysters sunk into the mud and suffocated. Hauling these oysters in trains all the way to the West Coast for bedding in the Pacific had already proven to be a most expensive proposition. Many of the Eastern oysters died before they ever got there and the ones that did survive had to be pampered. The Eastern Oyster also showed no interest in reproducing in the Pacific. As if all the hardships the Willapa Bay oystermen had endured had not been discouraging enough, in 1919, some unexplained oyster disease wiped out most of their Eastern oysters.

That "special bank shot" was desperately needed to get out from behind that eight ball. The few oystermen left in Washington State started looking west across the mighty Pacific to Japan. A very special oyster with the scientific name "Crassostrea gigas" lived there. Importing live oysters from Japan had been tried on a limited scale in previous years with little or no success. In 1919, 400 cases of these "Japanese oyster" were purchased and shipped to Washington. Two to three weeks travel time from Yokohama, Japan, took a terrible toll. By the time the Japanese oysters reached Washington oystermen, most were just as dead as the Eastern oysters had once been. However, there was a big difference. The ones that did survive, took well to the clean and nutritious waters and rapidly grew to a marketable size. Tiny oyster babies had a tendency to survive. Also, compared to the Eastern Oyster, the Japanese oyster displayed a higher tolerance to the silting and soft bottoms common in Puget Sound and the Willapa Bay.

In the early 1920s, two young Japanese immigrants up in Puget Sound, Joe Miyagi und J. Emy Tsukimoto, finally managed to perfect the importation and cultivation of young Pacific Oysters from Japan. Mature oysters. yound and old, had previously been imported. Miyagi and Tsukimoto discovered that baby oysters (called "spat"), growing on plain shell stock or other suitable substrate (called "cultch") weathered the long journey from Japan with few problems. They also figured out that these oyster babies needed to stay in Japanese waters for a few months before being shipped. Shipments in springtime seemed to work out best. This form of imported oyster stock subsequently became the rule. In the later part of the 1920s, oystermen on Willapa Bay also started to bring in this type of oyster seed stock from Japan. Incidentally, the success in the two young oystermen Miyagi and Tsukimato was short lived. In 1921, Washington State passed the anti-alien law, preventing ownership or leasing of land by Japanese immigrants.

The Japanese oyster adapted extremely well to the Pacific Northwest. It delighted oystermen with its robust constitution and rapid growth rate. Although this species had (and has) a tendency to rapidly grow into massive "oyster clumps", which often needed to be separated by a screw driver, small hammer or other blunt object, oystermen on Willapa Bay and Puget Sound did not complain much. They were thrilled because they knew, after decades of most difficult times, that the key to a promising future in the oyster business had finally been found.

The Japanese oyster particularly loved life in the Willapa Bay, so much in fact, that by 1934 there were more huge Japanese oysters than the oystermen knew what to do with. Growing lots of big oysters was one thing, selling them was quite another. Although a big oyster tastes just as good as a small oyster, the large oyster meats did not find ready U.S. consumer acceptance like for instance "big Idaho potatoes" do. A conventional oyster recipe calling for two dozen oysters was certainly overtaxed with two dozen of these Willapa giants. Plump Willapa Bay oysters like these were unusual - even for Japanese standards. The Japanese were used to about 150 - 200 meats per gallon container. At that point, Willapa Bay oystermen could fill a gallon with just 50 oyster meats. Not only size became an issue, the name of the oyster also did not help. Anti-Asian sentiments abounded among U.S. West Coast consumers during those days. Hence, in the 30s, oystermen in the Pacific Northwest changed the name "Japanese oyster" to "Pacific oyster".

Although some initial marketing troubles slowed the oyster business down a bit, they certainly did not change the fact that Washington oystermen were producing some of the finest oysters in the world - and plenty of them. Since there are many ways to enjoy oysters and other shellfish, providing the consumer with a tasty meal in a can was one way to prove it. A steaming bowl full of delicious Tidepoint oyster stew from the Wiegardt family on Willapa Bay was sure to make even the grumpiest farmer in the Midwest smile after a long day in the fields. Willapa Bay oystermen started putting more emphasis on canned, smoked and kippered oysters - ultimately with great success.

Washington State was off and running to ultimately become a very big player in the American oyster game. Oystermen in Oregon and British Columbia soon followed suit cultivating the Pacific oyster on a smaller scale. Since then, the Pacific oyster has become the darling of all the oystermen in northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia , and even Alaska.