Pacific Shellfish Institute

Home
United States
Olympia, WA
Pacific Shellfish Institute

Call Directions Website

Fostering sustainable shellfish resources and a healthy marine environment through research and educ

PSI research and educational activities are aimed at supporting sustainable shellfish production and restoration, protecting marine ecosystems, reducing user-conflicts, and informing coastal planning decisions. Most of our activities focus on publicly-funded research projects to evaluate the ecology, health, and diseases of shellfish, including oysters, mussels and clams. We also conduct much needed social research to characterize the status of the shellfish production and restoration along the West Coast, including examinations into the economic costs and benefits of shellfish activities and socio-economic assessments of barriers to entry and sustainable production for the shellfish industry.

10/14/2026

Alright plankton people, we are taking this one on the road! Come have some microscopic fun this Saturday afternoon at the Yelm Timberland Library Plankton Workshop. Find out which plankton are blooming this fall season, make greeting cards, and learn about our Discover Plankton Microscope Kits available for checkout at 4 TRL Library locations ( Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, and Yelm).

What: Plankton Workshop
When: Saturday Nov. 17th 3:30-5pm
Where: Yelm Library
Cost: FREE

Powered by Stream Team of Thurston County

10/07/2026

Our hearts are happy and inspired after working with these amazing kids from Thurston County’s Youth Development Afterschool Program. Last week, students helped prepare and fill over 40 bags of Olympia oysters for overwintering in lower Budd Inlet as part of Dan Mazur’s Olympia Oyster Seed Planting Project. In the spring, these 20,000 oysters will be distributed to beaches along Budd and neighboring South Puget Sound inlets. Olympia oysters - Washington's only native oyster species - play a vital role in estuaries by cleaning the water and providing habitat for marine life. Learn more at: https://www.olympiaoysterseedplantingproject.org/.

A special thank you to the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment for supporting this important work.

10/06/2026

Sometimes, we have too much fun and last week’s ‘Lunch and Learn’ at the The Olympia Farmers Market was a prime example! We got the chance to talk to folks about the Plankton Monitoring we do for Sound Toxins as well as discuss the oyster shell trials at the Port of Olympia. The wonderful conversations we had with folks have carried warmth with us into fall. It was our first time tabling at the Farmers Market and it will definitely not be our last!

Thank you Inspire Olympia and Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment for empowering us to try new things!

09/08/2026

Hold Onto Your Butts!

PSI has partnered with Olympia Surfrider Foundation for years with the shared interest of keeping Puget Sound clean and healthy! Over the past 5 months alone, volunteers have removed over 54,000 butts from downtown Olympia streets during “Hold onto Your Butts” cleanup events.

Together, we have almost completed “block-by-block” cigarette butt tally data that will allow us to estimate how many butts lie within Oly’s downtown core at any given time while also identifying butt hotspots. Over the next few months, this information will be used to craft and test solutions to reduce the number of butts flicked onto the streets. Stay tuned!

A special shoutout to Karen and Riley Caton – geocache enthusiasts and pro-pickers! – for helping us complete our cig butt surveys last week! And thank you to Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment for supporting this important work! Want to get involved? Contact us at [email protected].

09/02/2026

Final “What’s Blooming in Budd?” event POSTPONED to Friday, the 3rd, from 10-12 at Port Plaza!

The kids are back in school and the rain has returned. Looking through microscopes is no fun when they are drizzled on and steamed up. So, please join us for the “What’s Blooming?” grand finale this coming Friday. We’ll serve up pumpkin bread muffins to celebrate that “Fall’s-in-the-air” feel.

Thank you, Inspire Olympia , Stream Team of Thurston County, and Port of Olympia, for supporting these fun, educational events.

08/12/2026

A big thanks to Marine Landscape Ecology Lab for capturing drone imagery on oyster beds with us today!

Can drones help us count live versus dead oysters on the tideflats? Stay tuned as we explore this exciting opportunity.

Shout-out to Pacific Seafoods for hosting on their shellfish farm in beautiful Willapa Bay! 🦪🌊

07/31/2026

Super fun day down on the dock yesterday with volunteer, Jeanne Koenings, Shoreline Community College student, Sophie Alexiou, and parter-in-crime, Mary Elizabeth! Over 90 people, 4 pelicans, and several harbor seals stopped by to check out What’s Blooming in Budd!

This week, visibility was lovely at 2.5 meters, and the sample was a nice mix of diatoms and dinoflagellates: Skeletonema, Ditylum, Chaetoceros, and Scrippsiella. Dinophysis (5 different species) increased from last week from 30 to 661 cells/L.

Thank you, Inspire Olympia and Stream Team of Thurston County, for supporting these free, educational, all-age events!

07/02/2026

🌊Welcome to Naukati Bay, AK! Home to sumptuous oysters gently tumbled and fueled by a rich plankton community all year long 🦪💦

During the solstice, PSI had the opportunity to learn how oysters are grown in subtidal floating bag systems here in Naukati Bay, AK, along the shore of Prince of Wales Island. 🙏A huge thanks to Blue Starr Oyster Co. and Tommaso Shellfish for partnering with and hosting PSI on their farms!

Beyond a tasty oyster, shellfish farms provide important ecosystem services in estuarine systems. PSI and partners in AK and WA are quantifying the diversity of life on shellfish farms throughout the changing seasons. Follow along as we explore these unique habitats! 🦪💦

06/24/2026

Plankton Fan Zone – Percival Landing Pavilion dock!

PSI is kicking off the “What’s Blooming in Budd?” season tomorrow, Thursday, from 10-12 at the dock in front of the Percival Landing Pavilion, downtown Olympia. Please note the TEMPORARY NEW LOCATION since Port Plaza has become the fan zone for the exciting World Cup!

“What’s Blooming in Budd?” events will resume every Thursday this summer at PORT PLAZA (10-12) from June 24th to September 3rd.

Join us for community fun and exploration as we collect SoundToxins samples and see who’s dominating the plankton world this week.

Thank you, Stream Team of Thurston County and Inspire Olympia, for supporting these events.

06/17/2026

It was a gorgeous day to collect plankton samples for SoundToxins with long-time volunteer, Jeanne Koenings, and Tumwater HS student, Lorenzo Larios.

Plankton cell counts combined with WDOH shellfish testing prove to be a highly effective way to better understand harmful algal blooms (HABs) and protect human health and the shellfish industry. Learn more at www.soundtoxins.org.

Today, the water was thick with Akashiwo sanguinea (5,500 cells/L), Noctiluca scintillans, and Tripos fusus. Dinophysis, the species responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) and the current recreational shellfish harvest closure in Budd Inlet, is still common.

Come see what's in the water next Thursday (10:00-12:00) as we kick off the “What’s Blooming in Budd?” summer season at the Port Plaza dock! All are welcome!

Address

1206 State Avenue NE
Olympia, WA
98506

Telephone

(360) 754-2741

Website

http://www.pacshell.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Pacific Shellfish Institute posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your organization to be the top-listed non profit organization in Olympia?