The protected tidal waters of Puget Sound produce a perfect growing environment for shellfish. Oysters, geoducks, clams, and mussels have been The protected tidal waters of Puget Sound produce a perfect growing environment for shellfish. Oysters, geoducks, clams, and mussels have been staple items in the diet of Coast Salish tribes for millennia due to their abundance in the area. Early white settlers in Washington quickly found local shellfish to be a valuable export fetching high prices in San Francisco. The shellfish industry of the region expanded through the 20th century due to legislation approving private ownership of tidelands which allowed for companies to establish and seed oyster and clam beds. In 2021, Washington State is the leading U.S. producer for farmed oysters and clams.
The harvesting, processing, and seeding of shellfish is a labor-intensive industry. Conditions can be harsh as working hours are defined by the low tides which can occur day or night throughout the year. Much like the fish processing industry in early Washington, the shellfish industry at the time was also heavily worked by Chinese laborers. Few jobs were available to Chinese workers, so many found low paying work in less desirable industries like fish processing. Due to changing immigration policies and exclusionary acts, the demographics of laborers in the shellfish industry have transitioned from Chinese in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to Japanese and Filipino immigrants, and in the last several decades to Hispanic and Latin American labor. The Census Bureau’s 2018 community survey found that 42% of workers in Washington’s agriculture/fishing/forestry industries were immigrants - the highest share of immigrants in any occupational category.
In this photo, unidentified workers shuck oysters at the oyster and clam plant of Taylor United Inc. (now Taylor Shellfish) in Shelton, WA. Beginning in the 1890s, Taylor Shellfish has been one of the prominent producers of shellfish in Washington and one of largest employers in Mason County. As of 2021, Taylor Shellfish operates processing centers, a hatchery, restaurants, and harvesting beds through the Puget Sound region.
Caption information source: :“A Cultural History of the Olympia Oyster” by Ed Echtle. From the City of Olympia: website at https://m.olympiawa.gov/city-services/parks/percival-landing/olympia-oyster.aspx Caption information source: "Immigrant Labor in Fish Processing in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia and Current Undocumented Labor," Adi Salinas, Pomona College, CA 2015. Retrieved at https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=pomona_theses
