Clallam County’s Marine Resource committee to study abalone in strait

By Emma Maple • August 21, 2024 1:30 am
Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife The Clallam County Marine Resource Committee looks to study and potentially increase the population of the pinto abalone — Washington state’s only known indigenous abalone.
Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife The Clallam County Marine Resource Committee looks to study and potentially increase the population of the pinto abalone — Washington state’s only known indigenous abalone.

The Clallam County Marine Resource Committee has a new project aimed at studying and potentially increasing the pinto abalone population.

During the county commissioners’ Aug. 5 work session, Marine Resource Committee (MRC) representatives shared the project and updated them on some other projects they’ve worked on over the past year.

The marine snail pinto abalone, a state endangered species, is the state’s only known indigenous abalone, MRC representatives said.

Later this month, the committee will begin assessing the species’ population levels through monitoring dives along the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Clallam County.

Committee representatives told the commissioners that a 2014 study indicated that the area’s pinto abalones are severely depleted, largely due to poaching.

To spawn, pinto abalones must have another abalone within a 15-meter radius. Because of that, Clallam County’s habitat biologist Rebecca Mahan wrote in an email interview that areas with low population densities may be unable to recover on their own.

“Recovery without human intervention appears unlikely,” Mahan wrote.

If necessary, the committee hopes to eventually spawn pinto abalones and place them back into the wild.

“That is years out,” Mahan wrote.

The committee is collaborating with organizations, including the Puget Sound Restoration Fund and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) for the project.

Some of the committee’s other projects include forage fish and pigeon guillemot surveys, kelp monitoring, oyster restoration, Ediz Hook revegetation, Elwha Beach stewardship and more.

For the forage fish surveys, volunteers collected forage fish eggs from four locations and sent them to WDFW for analysis.

Forage fish populations can be an indicator of the health and productivity of nearshore systems, according to CCMRC’s website.

Volunteers also spent 10 weeks between June and August surveying the nesting activities of pigeon guillemot, a bird species considered an indicator of nearshore health. That project was coordinated with the Salish Sea Guillemot Network and the Audubon Society.

The committee also monitored the kelp population at both Freshwater Bay and Clallam Bay. According to committee representatives, data indicates that the Strait of Juan de Fuca’s kelp beds are generally doing better than Puget Sound’s kelp beds.

Another committee project is the restoration of Sequim Bay’s oyster population, in partnership with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

This year, the committee spread more than 47 tons of clean oyster shells in the bay. Over the next year, it plans to spread about 50,000 oyster spats into the bay.

The project was partially in response to the 2021 heat dome, which killed a large portion of the bay’s oyster population.

The committee also helped revegetate Ediz Hook by planting 3,000 plants and 10 pounds of native beach grass seed, in partnership with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Clallam Conservation District.

The committee also helped remove 47 pounds of trash from Elwha Beach.

The Clallam County Marine Resource Committee (CCMRC) is a volunteer advisory committee focused on protecting and restoring marine resources in Clallam County, according to its website.