Oyster Base Camps

The Wild Oyster Project has a new volunteer oyster gardening program called Oyster Base Camps and we’d love for you to be a part of it! An Oyster Base Camp is a wire mesh cage filled with cured recycled oyster shells that hangs suspended in the water column attached by a line to a dock or a pier.

How Does it Work?

By providing shell, an Oyster Base Camp increases the likelihood oyster larvae in the water will settle successfully, survive to adulthood, and increase the wild oyster population of the bay. Our hope is that larvae spawned from existing populations will find our base camps and use them as jumping off points to homestead new oyster populations. The Base Camp protects oyster spat from sedimentation, heat stress, and certain predators. It’s not attached to the bottom and does not disturb the existing benthic environment. It also provides habitat for other species.

How do you Participate?

By providing a place where we can deploy the Base Camp in the water and allowing Wild Oyster staff and trained volunteers to access the Base Camp once every 3 months for oyster monitoring and maintenance. Our Oyster Base Camps are a mix of private docks and public spaces. You can view one of our Base Camps at Mission Rock Resort which is also one of our partner restaurants for our shell recycling program.

We can also provide training and tools if you as a Base Camp host would like to monitor and maintain it yourself. 

We seek to engage as much of the community as possible in our work. When a community is allowed to get their feet wet, they feel ownership of a project, ensuring its long-term sustainability. Our project nurtures stewards and activists to be directly involved in the design, fabrication, and data collection thereby fostering a connection with the natural environment.  Just like the Olympia oyster itself, the Oyster Base Camp program is small, but impactful.

Please contact us if you would like to host a Base Camp!