Oyster Picking on Willapa Bay
For the last five years I have worked for an oyster company on Willapa Bay, located in Southwest Washington State. It seems like every time I tell somebody that I "pick oysters", they really have no idea what the job really is. So now, I shall explain in general detail what the job really is like (at least in Willapa Bay), and for whoever reads it, they shall learn something that they probably didn't know, even if they have ate oysters before.
The main oyster harvested in Willapa Bay nowadays is the Pacific Oyster, or Japanese Oyster (it was imported from Japan in the early 1900's). Olympia oysters are the native oysters in the bay, but populations decreased drastically in the late 1800's and is no longer farmed or harvested, but can still be found in the bay.
Oysters are picked at low tide, when the oysters are exposed and not underwater, as they must be at high tide so they can feed. As the tide goes out, small skiffs and oyster barges leave ports such as the port of peninsula and Bay Center and head out to the privately owned oyster beds where the shellfish are harvested. Some oyster beds are also federally and state owned.
Once they arrive at the oyster beds, oyster "pickers" as they are called (identified by baskets they carry, hip boots and usually some sort of rain gear to keep from getting completely muddy) clamber out of their boats and head to the tubs, which they fill with oysters.
Oysters are picked with two hands, usually as fast as possible, while bent over. This is hard on your back, so usually you crouch a bit with your legs as well. Oysters don't extend very high off the mud, so this is necessary. Oysters do not, however, grow deeply buried or under the mud as clams do. If too much mud is over them, they will die. An oyster picker puts his or her basket between their legs and crouches over it while they pull the oysters out of the mud (with thick rubber gloves) and toss them into the basket. When the basket is about half full, they set the basket on its bottom so it is sitting upright and continue to fill it until it is full, usually heaping. A completely (and I mean heaping full) basket can weigh anywhere from 30-40 pounds to 70-90 pounds, depending upon how thick or mucky the mud is in the area being harvested.
Once the basket if full it is carried over to the oyster tubs. Oyster tubs are large metal tubs that are left at the oyster beds until the beds are completely picked. They have a chain on them, with a buoy. This chain and buoy are for when the tubs are picked up by the oyster barge when the tide has come in, Which is what we call "dumping tubs". Once the tubs are all filled, the days work of picking the oysters is done. Usually the tide is on its way in or quite a ways in by this time and it is time to start dumping the tubs onto the oyster barge, which is a whole different process than picking the oysters and I will save the explanation to this part of the day for another time.
This process of picking oysters is basically always how it has been done, except sometimes the oysters are picked onto a scowl instead of into tubs. It has always been hard back breaking work. Picking the oysters is just one of the steps in the oyster farming industry and just one of the things that needs to be done in order to bring these delicious mollusks to market. It is an extremely muddy, dirty job and oyster shells are sharp, so your arms and wrists often get cut and slashed, drawing blood. Gloves usually only last for 3-4 days picking maximum. The weather can be awfully bad out in the bay to, and work is usually only canceled for extremely high wind or lighting.
So the next time you eat an oyster, appreciate the hard work put into bringing it to the table for you to eat.
