Squaxin Island Tribe's Natural Resources

Twice a year PCSGA hosts beach cleanup events at the Arcadia launch.  Every year dumpsters are filled with various types of debris that has washed ashore.  Some of the source of this trash is from aquaculture activities and much of it  is from other sources.  Squaxin Island employees and tribal members helped clean up the [...]

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Extremely cold weather combined with very low tides in November 2008 or the unusually large influxs of sediment from the December 2008 and January 2009 storms seems to be taking a toll on clams in Oakland Bay.  Growers report that there are many more dead clams than usual–maybe twice the ususal number especially in upper Oakland Bay and [...]

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Fecal Bacteria Concentrations (MF/100 ml) at Stream Mouths The Squaxin Island Tribe released their winter 2008-09 water sampling results to the Oakland Bay Clean Water District Advisory Committee on March 4th.  Five samples were collected at nine stream mouths between October 2008 and February 2009.  Two of the sampling days, 11/12 and 1/7, occurred during major storm [...]

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In the March 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, is a great article featuring Squaxin Geoduck Fishery aboard the Ichiban.   Geoducks: Happy as Clams by Craig Welch Smithsonian Magazine  

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Geoduck tubes were removed from small test-plots on Squaxin Island in early January.  These tubes were put in prior to planting to help protect the baby geoduck from predation.  Generally tubes are removed after approximately 1 year as the clams have dug deep enough to avoid most predators.  Many individuals from Squaxin Island Natural Resources were [...]

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Figure 1. Oakland Bay With Hammersley Inlet Private Tidelands Area Shown By Red Arrow During the summer of 2008 Squaxin Island Natural Resources Shellfish employees conducted shellfish population surveys on several privately owned tidelands in Hammersley Inlet (Figure 1).  This area had previously been closed to harvesting due to some form of pollution (see http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/sf/default.htm [...]

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On November 20th the tribe had our first harvest on a piece of Tide land located in Oakland Bay leased from The Washington State Department of Natural Resources.  25 tribal members were given the opportunity to dig 180Ibs of manila clams using a hand held fork.  The limit for this dig was increased in order [...]

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Early morning on November 20th the Squaxin Island Tribe’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery will open in south Puget Sound. This includes all of the marine waters south of the Tacoma Narrows except for the Nisqually Reach and Balch and Drayton passages. The fishery will be open seven days a week from one hour before sunrise [...]

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On October 23, 2008 the Shellfish Enhancement program finished distribution of some 9 million clam seed on Squaxin Island and in Case Inlet.  Seeded beaches include S21 A & B, the north and south shores in Palela Bay, S16 A and Gills cove.

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Shellfish enhancement began on Squaxin Island on August 28th, with Manila clam seed being spread on one of our island beaches.  With the recent addition of a new position to lead the enhancement portion of the Shellfish Department, this seeding event  was a successful start for new beach manager Daniel Kuntz.  This enhancement program is [...]

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