Willapa Bay

They soon ran out of all these in the California waters, so some savvy Washington state entrepreneurs quickly started shipping them south.

There was such a hunger for this oyster, the only native oyster on the West Coast, by people who were celebrating their gold discoveries, that more and more oysters were shipped down from Willapa Bay and Puget Sound to San Francisco so that those 49ers could go out and celebrate their finds by ordering the most expensive thing on the menu.

The prospectors prized the Olympia oyster for their unique coppery taste.

They hauled them into the mountains on mule trains and even invented a dish in the mining camps known as hangtown fry that mixed oysters with scrambled eggs and bacon.

And lifeboats did not fare very well in storms like the one that was blowing the Challenger around just then.

In desperation, the Challenger headed north, trying to make Willapa Bay on the coast of Washington, where, if the seas proved impassable, the Challenger would have more of a chance if a last-ditch, desperate beaching run were necessary.

At Willapa Bay, the tug Astoria, seeing the smoke and the distress signals, charged to the rescue.

In crossing the bar, the doughty tug dug into a massive comber that swept across her deck, knocking Captain Chris Olsen down and leaving him badly injured.

But his tug managed to make it across the bar and get a line on the now visibly smoking Challenger.

Governor Jay Inslee declared an emergency over the crabs in 2021.

The vast majority of crabs have been caught in Willapa Bay, with smaller numbers in Grace Harbor and North Puget Sound.

A student at Orcas Island Middle School found the island's first known green crab in June.

Seventh grader Paxton Irwin called it a bummer to find, but good to know that they're out there.

It's wedged between the crushing, freezing waves of the Pacific Ocean on one side.

And Willapa Bay on the other side.

Right, and it is famously gray.

The weather is just oppressive.

They successfully brought the boat in through the breakers without capsizing, and the mariners splashed ashore through the shallow waters along the North Jetty where spectators watching the rescue on shore hurried to help them get ashore and warm them up around a big bonfire there.

The next day, a third motor lifeboat came down from Willapa Bay.

Neither of the local boats could be repaired in time, and laboriously went about rescuing the remaining mariners from the laurel.

But the crowd of people watching the shore couldn't help but notice something odd.

Great blue herons have finished nesting and are beginning to disperse.

They can be seen foraging in our wetlands along rivers' edges and the shoreline of Willapa Bay.

Large black clouds of sooty shearwaters have been traversing the shores of the Pacific.

They migrate by the thousands along our shores as they make their way to their wintering grounds in the Southern Hemisphere.

Waterfowl, including ducks and geese, will seek food and rest on the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge.

Some of our most common waterfowl are northern pintail, green-winged teal, and northern shovelers.

They can be found on Willapa Bay, in Tarlet Slough, and other wetlands of the South Bay Unit on the Long Beach Peninsula.

The huge wetland on 85th Street should be home to various species of foraging geese and ducks.

Clete comes Friday to bring me down.

I looked at the slide a long time tonight anyway." The oysters on Arvid's ground could only be picked when the tide was all the way out, and in January on Willapa Bay, the tide goes all the way out in the middle of the night.

Ansel was twenty-two in the winter of 1982, and he'd hired on that December with an oysterman named Arvid, who worked leased beds out of Nacata on the Washington coast.

It was hand work.