Feb 2020 Winner Katie Houle

Katie Houle: Brilliant green penpoint gunnels guard their eggs in our trays growing rock scallops in Sequim Bay. Gunnels are one of the many colorful species that find these trays a safe haven for feeding and breeding!

Apr 2020 Winner Sergio Guevara

Sergio Guevara: The picture shows the happy coexistence of the oyster growing gear with Eelgrass (Zostera marina) bed. Eelgrass is the nursery ground for many aquatic species. Eelgrass gets the benefit of the oyster excrete that act as a fertilizer for the plant.

May 2020 Winner Jeremy Esposito

Jeremy Esposito: Although stock checks of scallop broodstock lead to reports of mortality, we tend to get a kick out of the new residents. Pictured here is a purple-hinged rock scallop repurposed. Looks to me like a sculpin (?), nesting below Manchester’s NMFS Sablefish pens.

Jun 2020 Winner Nyle Taylor

Nyle Taylor: This weekend’s extreme low tides exposed ground that does not often go dry. Prior to planting geoduck, this bed was bare sand. The addition of the mesh tubes provided structure for the kelp forest that is to the north of the farm to expand covering nearly a half-acre of our mesh tubes. Kelp provides many ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration to habitat for a variety of native Puget Sound species.

Jul 2020 Winner Marc Dewey

Marc Dewey: While cleaning out geoduck nursery tubes we often find mussels, cockles, barnacles and juvenile crab. Today we discovered that stickleback fish have been creating egg nests under seaweed within the protective environment of the tubes.

Aug 2020 Winner Fiona Boardman

Fiona Boardman: Lesser Yellowlegs are just one of the many shorebird species that utilize oyster aquaculture habitat to forage during their migrations. The birds use their long bills to capture small invertebrates from the mud. This photo was taken at Brady's Oysters in Grays Harbor, where I am studying the foraging behavior of shorebirds in and out of oyster aquaculture.

Sep 2020 Winner Fiona Boardman

Nov 2020 Winner Mark Seymour

Dec 2020 Winner Gary Fleener

Dec 2019 Winner Bill Dewey

Bill Dewey: Geoduck nursery tubes provide substrate and refuge for a variety of organisms besides geoduck. This tube has mussels, cockles and a couple of species of sponges growing in and on it.

Nov 2019 Winner Nick Wenzel

Nick Wenzel: Deep intertidal mesh tubes provide a great surface for organisms such as hydroids, bryozoans and anemones to grow on. These organisms are an important food source for many animals, including the three White-Lined Dirona nudibranchs pictured here.

Oct 2019 Winner Daniel Holsapple

Daniel Holsapple: At our company's facility in Humboldt Bay we raise juvenile oysters in tanks on a small barge. As seawater is pumped into the tanks and through the oysters it pours back into the bay through the deck grating. This creates an artificial intertidal zone where goose barnacles, mussels, limpets, and algae can flourish.

Aug 2019 Winner Frank Reveil

Margo Reveil: This nudibranch is more photogenic and he’s eating sea anemones and tunicates for us to lighten the load

Jul 2019 Winner Ian Jefferds

Ian Jefferds: A big river otter (Lontra canadensis) is shown hauled out on our mussel raft in Quilcene Bay. The river otters are adept at catching fish and eating shellfish found around floating mussel rafts, where food is plentiful and the otters have a safe place to rest.

Jun 2019 Winner Duane Fagergren

Duane Fagergren: This bag of Olympia oysters on a rack at -2.5 ft. elevation has quite an assemblage of plants and invertebrates. Red, green and brown algae settle on the bag, and shrimp exited the bag as the tide receded. The Graceful crab is in molting condition and sought refuge on top of the bag until the old shell can be shed.

Apr 2019 Winner Duane Fagergren

Duane Fagergren: Wash water from one longline bag of seed shows a sample of fish and invertebrates that use oysters inside bags as prolific habitat. In this one partial sample are shore crabs, amphipods, copepods, crangon shrimp, and snake prickleback (fish). Foraging fish such as Coastal Cutthroat trout, sculpins, flatfish and sea perch congregate around the bags as well.

Mar 2019 Winner Scott Smith

Scott Smith: As it turns out, humans aren’t the only ones who enjoy feasting on Pacific Oysters. This octopus crawled into our oyster tub in Mud Bay on Eld Inlet. We released him back into the bay, but we found him the very next day in the same tub feasting away again. Smart guy! He knows good food when he finds it.

Feb 2019 Winner Richard Turner

Richard Turner: Native Spiny Scallops growing in homemade pearl net provides safe spot for native Green Sea Urchin to grow. The urchins graze on the algae growing on the scallops and pearl net. Scallops are natural filters of phytoplankton. Zooplankton help keep water clean of algae blooms.

Jan 2019 Winner Audrey Lamb

Mussel farms provide three-dimensional habitat for other critters. In this photo, caprellids, or “skeleton shrimp” look like seaweed, but they are actually crustaceans that live on mussels. Caprellids cling to mussels suspended on ropes and ambush prey when it floats by. They are a food source for surf perch, shiner perch, jellyfish, and nudibranchs.

Dec 2018 Winner Nyle Taylor

Nyle Taylor: This photo was taken by our divers off the east side of Harstine Island. In the background, you can just make out the shadows of two of our divers working to install mesh tubes underwater. In the process, schools of shiner perch and flounder are attracted into our work site to feed on organisms that have been brought to the surface of the sand through the tube installation process. The fish dart in and out from between the tubes. Despite our diver’s presence, the fish are highly active, even right in the vicinity of their work.

Nov 2018 Winner Ben Reynolds

I found these crabs hanging around one of many buoy line in Spencer Cove in the south Puget Sound. Buoys and lines are useful tools for anyone who utilizes the ocean and its natural resources as markers, way points, and boundaries. Kelp crabs, oblivious to the original intent of ropes, utilize these lines to buoys as a high point to capture passing food mimicking their namesake, kelp.

Sep/Oct 2018 Winner Wesley Hull

The Opalescent nudibranch (Hermissenda crassicornis) is just one of many organisms inhabiting our oyster rafts. With the rugose assemblage of barnacles and other encrusting organisms growing on or rafts providing shelter for a diversity of predators and prey, our oyster rafts promote a healthy and diverse community of benthic invertebrates.

Aug 201 Winner Dawn Smart

There's nothing of greater importance to the sustainability of a healthy ecosystem than educating the younger generation.

Jul 2018 Winner Josh Cahill

In an environment with little hard-surfaced substrate, shellfish culture provides real estate for many organisms. A sea lemon, Peltodoris nobilis, is one of those organisms, preying on sponges growing on this bag of mussels.

Jun 2018 Winner Wesley Hull

Our oyster long lines proved substrate for diverse algal communities to grow throughout the late spring and summer months. These alga, like the Ulva in this picture, provide food for native fish, invertebrates, and birds, promoting a healthy and diverse ecosystem within Humboldt Bay.

May 2018 Winner Ralph Riccio

A scale worm navigating the subtidal jungle of barnacles, mussels and caprellid shrimp on a FLUPSY bin in John Wayne Marina

Apr 2018 Winner Weatherly Bates

Seaweed including Sugar Kelp, Alaria and dulse form a dense underwater forest on our oyster longlines every spring in Alaska. Kelp forests have an extensive diversity of plants and animals; Including marine mammals, urchins, Fish and crustacean, that rely on the Kelp as habitat and for food. This Kelp community contributes significantly to the productivity of the environment. In addition, Kelp has the potential to reduce ocean acidification as it grows quickly taking up carbon dioxide from the seawater. By providing a surface for Kelp to grow on, our oyster farm provides a multitude of environmental benefits to our local ecosystem.

Mar 2018 Winner David Shupert

Oblivious to the extreme amount of human activity, this clam spawn ensures future generations of Manilla clams. This sight never gets old, no matter how many times I see it!

Feb 2018 Winner Weatherly Bates

The giant Pacific Octopus, just one of the many creatures that utilize our farm as habitat. This juvenile octopus was found inside an oyster shell. Oyster shells provide perfect habitat for juvenile octopus and there are ample invertebrates thriving in the oyster cages that the octopus eat. Another reason farming oysters is great for the environment— by providing habitat for invertebrates, like the octopus.

Jan 2018 Winner Tracy Oviatt

Tracy’s photo is of a Dungeness crab “Living a sheltered Life” within a Pacific oyster. Photo taken in Netarts Bay, Oregon.

Jan 2017 Winner Blaine Schoolfield

Blaine's photo is of a Lemon nudibranch and mussels, just two of the many animals that utilize oyster cage structure for habitat on Molluscan Broodstock Program rafts in Yaquina Bay, OR.

Nov 2017 Winner Nicolas de Witt

Something caught de Witt's eye while inspecting Manila Clam beds. A fish had laid several eggs in one of the panels that covers and protects the clams. They stood out from the rocky beds in the light of his headlamp, otherwise he might never have noticed them.

Oct 2017 Winner Weatherly Bates

This juvenile sea otter Weatherly call Scuppers. He is missing a front paw which probably would have doomed him if he hadn't figured out to befriend her and her co-workers. Scuppers spends his days close by their farm boat eating all of the urchins, crabs and mussels that are washed out their boats as they clean and harvest their oysters. Everywhere they go Scuppers follows for a meal. He went from a skinny starving otter to plump and healthy. Weatherly says they are very happy this little guy found them. Photo taken in Homer, Alaska.

Aug 2017 Winner Duane Fagergren

Under this mat of green macro algae (Enteromorpha sp) lies this year’s crop of yearling single Pacifics. The oysters consume phytoplankton, and excrete feces, pseudo feces, and ammonia in a mixture that serves to fertilize this luxurious crop of seaweed. The lush crop also provides habitat for crab (graceful crabs mostly) and fish (shiner perch, stag horn sculpin, and bay pipefish). The downside of this heavy growth is a mat that makes oysters grow slower, clams come to the surface of the beach and can’t dig themselves back in, and likely oxygen debt as the algae naturally dies and decomposes.

Jul 2017 Winner Margeret Homerding

Margaret's photo shows how oysters provide valuable structure and habitat.

Jun 2017 Winner Dillon McEdward

Dillon's picture shows a large Stellar sea lion hauled out on a mussel rafts in Quilcene Bay, WA. Shellfish rafts play an accessory role as a safe haul out site for marine mammals, one which is away from beach disturbances and provides quick access to the water for feeding. Rafts also provide quick escape for sea lions and seals when orcas are present.

Jan 2017 Winner Steve Seymour

Attached is a pic of a male plain fin midshipman guarding the spawn on the underside of Drayton Harbor Oyster Co mesh growout bags. Steve says this is a somewhat recent phenomenon as their growout bags provide a hard protected surface which did not exist prior to DHO. Needless to say bags with spawn are left in place for 3-4 weeks.

Feb 2017 Winner Daniel Hanson

A Sea Cucumber (Actinopyga echinites) reclining in Dan's grandson's hands after being found under a grow bag on Hood Canal, near Union. Sea cucumbers serve a useful role in the marine ecosystem as they help recycle nutrients, breaking down detritus and other organic matter after which bacteria can continue the degradation process. Numerous small animals can live in symbiosis or commensalism with sea cucumbers, as well as some parasites.

Mar 2017 Winner Emily Garlick

Emily's photo shows the blue mussels growing on longlines of mussel farms busily feeding. White sea anemones are growing with them. The mussels are sucking in sea water filtering out phytoplankton helping to keep phytoplankton blooms in check. You can see their mantles, the tissue just inside the shell, making a siphon to channel the water over the gills toward the mouth for feeding.

Apr 2017 Winner Bill Dewey

Bill's photo shows a variety of macroalgae growing on the pvc nursery tubes and net tops on his Fisk Bar geoduck farm in Samish Bay, WA. It also shows the eelgrass starting to fill back in around the tubes.

May 2017 Winner Brian Kingzett

Here Bill shows Short Billed Dowitchers feeding in a complex of eelgrass and oysters at Goose Point Oysters in Willapa Bay, WA. This complex of oysters and eelgrass produces biofilms and habitat for numerous small prey items for foraging shorebirds.

Jan 2016 Winner Lisa Carlton-Long

Lisa's photo shows Shore crabs staying warm in their trays under the oysters at thier hood Canal property. “Urban crab housing”

Feb 2016 Winner Brett Long

Brett's photo shows Spinyhead Sculpin eggs taking advantage of their cultured oyster shell in Tarboo Bay, WA.

Mar 2016 Winner Zach Loescher

Photo taken recently by Seed Crew Supervisor.

Apr 2016 Winner Zach Loescher

Zach's photo shows juvenile Pink salmon finding protection while foraging food amongst their mussel lines. The mussel lines contain numerous types of zooplankton and marine invertebrates such as amphipods, isopods, and annelid and polychaete worms for the juvenile salmon to dine on as they adjust from their riverine to saltwater environment.

May 2016 Winner Brad Woolk

Brad's photo shows a Harbor seal hauled out on one of their mussel rafts in Quilcene Bay, WA. They commonly haul out on the rafts to rest and warm up after feeding. The seals grow accustomed to workers on the rafts and behave similar to a neighborhood dog who will put up with your presence as long as you do not get too close. The mussel rafts provide not only a safe haul out location, but also act as a magnate for food sources such on which the seals like to feed.

Jun 2016 Winner Nyle Taylor

Nyle's photo shows a Scoter duck eating Ghost shrimp during a geoduck dive harvest. Harvesting the geoducks loosened the sand just enough to allow the ducks to easily pluck the shrimp out of the ground. The ducks were not at all scared of their diver and even at one point, a duck came and grabbed a shrimp out of his hand.

July 2016 Winner Brian Sheldon

Brian's photo was taken of the fauna growing on their live float. This float serves an array of services for many non-shellfish species for about 9 month per year. The entire submerged portion of the float is covered with the type species shown in the photo. There are no anti fouling materials used in the construction of the float, so it becomes heavily covered every year.

Aug 2016 Winner Duane Fagergren

Duane was digging clams one morning when he heard a commotion behind him. A family of river otters hangs out close to the house. One of their preferred foods are small graceful crabs, Cancer gracilis. The crabs use the seed bags (foreground) and this year's yearling crop (background) to forage in. In fact the young-of-the-year graceful crabs undergo metamorphosis and settle in the bags with the Pacific seed. As the tide ebbs the crabs move out a bit and the otters' table is set. This one hauled out to scarf down one of the larger crabs. Species diversity and inter-dependence in action.

Sep 2016 Winner Scott Smith

Scott's photo shows natural set Pacific oysters that spawned from one of their patches of diploids. Oysters attach themselves to rocks, shells, or whatever stationary object they land on. As filter feeders, they play a crucial role in cleaning the body of water they grow in. The more oysters there are, the more filter feeding takes place, the cleaner the water is.

Nov 2016 Winner Lisa Long

Lisa's photo shows a very large school of young Perch seeking food from the crew sorting oysters and refuge from predators under their dock in Tarboo Bay, North Dabob, WA. She says that at times, there were so many you could barely see the bottom under the dock.

Dec 2016 Winner Zach Loescher

Zach getting ready to release a young octopus which rode a mussel line up the harvest conveyor. Octopus like the abundance and variety of food such as shrimp and small crabs which live amongst the mussel lines. The suspended lines of a mussel raft are similar to a small forest in that they provide a place for many species to call home or to find food or safety.

Jan 2015 Winner Zack Meyer

Zack's photo shows an egg mass from the many gunnels that have been using the oysters as habitat. The oysters and the bags they grow in provide essential habitat and protection for many fish species.

Feb 2015 Winner Paul Taylor

Paul's photo shows oysters and eelgrass co-habitating in Willapa Bay, WA. Both are critical habitat to their marine ecosystem.

Mar 2015 Winner Robert Johanson

Sue Shotwell & Robert Johanson from the Nisqually Indian Tribe took this photo of Gunnel egg masses within their cultch seed bags. The space within the oyster cultch bags provides protection and essential interstitial space for spawning to occur.

Apr 2015 Winner Weatherly Bates

Weatherly's photo shows how a suspended culture of oysters provides ample space for annual kelps and seaweeds to grow on. The kelp sets in the winter and grows at an astonishing rate in the spring, making an underwater forest under the farms. The kelp provides habitat for invertebrates and fishes and is also used by herring to spawn their eggs on. Photo taken in Homer, AK.

May 2015 Winner Bill Dewey

Bill's photo shows sea lemons (Doris montereyensis) mating and laying eggs on a predator net in Samish Bay, WA. This species feeds almost exclusively on sponges which are abundant on the nets on the Chuckanut Shellfish farm. Photo taken in Shelton, WA.

June 2016 Winner Nathan Henson

Nathan took this photo in June showing a Pacific oyster's Longline beds in Tillamook Bay, OR. Longline oyster beds provide excellent protection from predators for all kinds of sea life. From various types of seaweed to multiple kinds of shellfish, as well as the local jellyfish hangout spot.

Jul 2015 Winner Becky Mabardy

Becky's photo is of Sculpin fry who seek refuge under oyster grow bags. Aquaculture gear provides additional habitat for various intertidal organisms!

Aug 2015 Winner Shina Wycoski

Shina's photo shows Herring spawn on an oyster fence.

Nov 2015 Winner Johnny Shockley

Johnny says: 'The power of oysters on water quality.' His photo depicts how oysters clean the water; the tank on the left before the oysters, the one on the right shows the same water after oysters were added to the same water source. As you can see it shows how they filter and clean.

Dec 2015 Winner Weatherly Bates

Weatherly's photo shows Mytilus trossulus. They filter 2-3 liters of water per hour while they feed and respire. Just one 40' x 40' mussel raft stocked at capacity can filter 3 million liters of water per hour. By filtering water mussels have significant positive effects on nutrient and sediment removal from the water column. Some Nutrients are made into the body tissues of mussels that we later eat, the rest is excreted as waste which ends up on the seafloor, helping stimulate the rate of decomposition within the ecosystem. This means bivalves such as mussels have profound roles in controlling boom and bust cycles of seasonal phytoplankton blooms. Shellfish help stabilize marine environments leading to higher overall productivity and diversity of species.

Jan 2014 Winner Mat Bulldis

Mat's photo shows a geoduck tube and how it serves as a shrimp refuge. Photo taken in Nisqually Reach, WA

Feb 2014 Winner Linda Schafferl

Linda's photo depicts habitat and protection provided by mussel rafts. The diverse layers of organisms throughout the rafts are incredible. These pictures were taken from above the surface looking into the water. Photo taken in Olympia, WA.

Mar 2014 Winner Weatherly Bates

Weatherly's photo is of oyster cages and how they are great urchin habitat. The grazing urchins help keep our cages and oysters clean. Photo taken in Homer, AK.

Apr 2014 Winner Matt Smith

Matt's photo is of how micro-habitat amongst sleeves used for geoduck farming supports many species of macroalgae, crustaceans, echinoderms, and sponges.

May 2014 Winner Brian Sheldon

Brian's photo is of native drills gathering for spawn on a single oyster on one of their bottom culture beds. They rely on oyster, or other shells, to spawn and lay eggs. Photo taken in Ocean Park, WA.

Jun 2014 Winner Larry Morgan

Larry's photo shows the bags of shells used as burms to hold seed oysters inside the nursery and how they catch thousands of natural oyster spat during the spawn. The nursery creates habitat for fish, crabs, eels, and an abundance of marine plants and animals. Photo taken in Belfair, WA.

Jul 2014 Winner Sue Shotwell

Sue's photo shows how every day, during low tide, pairs of Great Blue Herons travel from a rookery at the head of Henderson Inlet to gather on the Nisqually Indian Tribe oyster farm. Whether the oysters are grown on the ground or suspended, the habitat they provide for smaller invertebrates draws forage fish who directly benefit from the abundant food source. Photo taken in Olympia, WA.

Aug 2014 Winner Nicole Gilmore

Nicole's photo shows lots of sponges (possibly breadcrumb sponges) using clam nets for habitat. Photo taken in Bellingham, WA.

Nov 2014 Winner Brian Phipps

Dec 2014 Winner Paul Taylor

Paul's calls his photo 'floating oyster culture.' As you can see there is quite the zoo, including sea urchins, mussels, and a variety of sponges. Photo taken in Shelton, WA.

Jan 2013 winner Don Gillies

Willapa Bay, WA.

Feb 2013 winner Erik Schlagenhauf

Tomalas Bay, CA.

Mar 2013 winner Nicholas Wenzel

Harstine Island, WA.

April 2013 winner Don Gillies

Willapa Bay, WA.

May-2013-winner-Neil-Kalson

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June 2013 winner Lissa James

Hood Canal, WA.

July 2013 winner Ian Jefferds

Penn Cove, WA.

Aug 2013 winner Eric Hall

Willapa Bay, WA.

Sept 2013 winner Bill Dewey

Juvenile Dungeness Crab on Oysters. Photo taken in Willapa Bay, WA.

Dec 2012 Winner James Hall

December 2012 Winner James Hall