The Rise And Decline Of The Ol^mpia Oyster 



APPENDIX A 



The Olympia Oyster and Pollution 



THIS CHAPTER WILL TREAT ONLY WITH THE 

 pollution agents discharged into lower Puget Sound as 

 industrial waste and their deleterious effect upon the 

 Olympia Oyster with the resultant decline in the Olym- 

 pia Oyster industry. 



To Olympia Oyster growers today, and the old timers 

 before them, it is evident that pollution is the principal 

 cause of the depletion of these delicious bivalves. 



Before the white man appeared on the scene, these 

 oysters had flourished for centuries in this, their native 

 habitat. Early white settlers harvested the wild crops 

 for over 40 years until the diking system was developed 

 and vast stretches of tide flats were transformed into 

 tidal pools. With the advent of the diking system, the pro- 



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