MacIntyre, Ross

Oregon Fish Commission. Shellfish Program

Undetermined

Oregon. Fish Commission. Shellfish Program

ScholarsArchive@OSU

I Netarts Clam ,SurveyJune S-9 and 13, 1960InterviewsOn the evening of June 7, 1960 111' and Mrs Ted Cornet (Chuok's Boat Se"vioe) were:L"1terviewed 9..t their plaoe of :~l't.1SL'"1e5S on Netarts Bay. In brief their oomnents 1yere- a.sfollows: ,(I) reoent tidal waMecaotion oaused by the Chilean earthquakes had altered olambeds by oovering them with sand; (2) the big:;est problem looally was: from striot enforo-ment by the State Polioe of shellfish regulations (oitations for orabs l/S-inoh underlegal si ze a'1d possession of gaper olams mistaken for Saxidomus) and this was drivi.'1goustomer~ a,vay; (3) a lot of gaper olams (blues) were being destroyed on the ea~t shoreof the baYJ (4) the problem was looalized and did not ooour on the westerly side of thebay; (5) they did not wish to see the bag limit inoreased all gaper olams and were sur-prised that this had been asked for ( a subsequent phone oall to Mrs Edner revealed thatthey meant to say 36 olams per day of whioh 18 oould be gaper~); (6) gaper olams werein widely scattered pookets and not as numerous as they used to be.On f 3 d · h t f '.' h' l.ool... ~" d h 11'e party a 19;gers from testa e a "as .1I1gton _ oHeoke on t ,e fa oW1I1gmorning (6-8-60). This party had at the time of oheoking 41 littleneoks (Prototha.oastaminea.) and S Saxidomus giganteus ( Quahog" Vlashingtoll Clam, Coney ISl8rld, Beefsteak,Butter Clam, and ·Great Oregon Clam), they estina ted that they had thrown away' 24 gaperolams.'\ A party of 2 diggers (obviously inexperienoed) had one littleneok and one Saxidomu!<at the time of oheoking. They had dug 4 gaper olams and thro~n them a~~y. \Vhen shownthe differenoe in the siphon holes, they were able to dig (in the dry) 10 more little-neoks and Saxidomus without digging an.y more gaper clams 0SurveysAREA 1: (See Bay Clams of Oregon, By L.D. 1mrriage; page 19). All oounts were thestandard oounts of sipho']s felt i.'1 100 square feet, skip 50 feet and oount another100 square foot area.Date: June S, 1960SU'rVeyors: C.D. Snow & R. MaoIntyreStart of Survey: 0430 hours. Survey oompleted: 1000 hours.Tide Rating:-l.l feet at 0549 hours oorreoted for Hetarts.Flat adjaoentto public boat launohing ramp and in front of Bishops Restaurant.The substratum in this area is varied. Near the launohing ramp it is very rooky(large rook rubble and broken shell) and has a scattered oover of brovm algae. It isthis area where dig:;ing is the heaviest as evidenoed hy many deep holes left by olamdiggers. Appa,rently many gaper olams live in this area (this is oonsidered to be atyp-ical habitat for the gaper olam), unfortuna tely this pottom type makes surveying (aoo-uratEll;ty) impossible.Near the extreme e'lst end, the olam population is oomprised mainlyof litt18llleoks and Slixidomus. The surveys were oonoentrated on the downbay end of thebed whioh has a sand substratum. In this area the olams are found in oonoentratednumbers in small pookets on small sand hummooks. Some En teromorpha oovers this partof the area. Ghost shrimp (Calinassia <5: Upogebia) abound in the sand and mud near thebank. At the far west end of the flat, a large high sand bank is present in 'vhioh nogapers were found. However, near the shore, the sand has ap(larently not yet oovered·'-2-Netarts Survey--_Cont •'.a poriion of the bed whioh extends about 250 feet beyond the generallwsstern limit ofollm bed. This part of the area is only about 50 feet wide but apparently l'a s goodnumbe,s of Saxidomua and gaper olams. lvIuoh digging had previously taken pla oe here.Some ghost shrimp holes were enoountered. This part of the flat was surveyed on June13, 1960 and the subsequent data is reoorded under transeot No.3.Transeot lIo. 1, Run near the waters edge parallel to the shore at the west end of theflat and 'followed a northwesterl;}' direotion. (See Fig. 2 for approxiamte looation)Plot No. No. of Gapers Connnen ts12278Mixed sand, gravel, and shell, ooveredwith eel grass. Adjaoent 20 squareinoh area (not in plot oount) 12 gaperswere oounted.Mixed sand, rook and gravel, some eelgrass. 1'wo foot square area not inplot oontained at least 14 gapers.Transeot No.2, Run southwesterly and parallel to the shore and 50 feet shorevmrd fromtran seet No.1.rook a."ld sandCommentsrook and sand, some Saxidomus showsnoted.Count low beoause of rook and sh ellsubstratum made it impossible to feelin hole s far enough to oonta ot olamsiphons. 12 _i,::;ers oounted at thistime on both sides of the bay.Plot No o No. of Gapers1 42 103 4Transeot No.3, Looated in part of flat between the shore and high sandy area at West-ern end of the ohm bed. Aligned between boat launohing sign and mark-er at end of grassy dunes on the s~dspit aoross the bay. Run about 50feet from the shore and parallel to it.Plot No., No. of gapers Comments2102~ud and rooks, some standIng v.'a;ter.~~ny butter olam shows noted(Saxidomus)Some ghost shrImp.Same as above.3 3 Sand substratum, standing wa~er. 1 oook-ie found.Random Plots,1st, joining end of 2nd transeot and start of transeot no. 1Plot No. No. of gapers Co_en ts1 36 Sand, eelgr8ss & standing waiter...3-Netarts Survey~-_Cont.2nd: J1im parallel to trle 1st plot of transect No.1 and 50 feet furlbher toward the bay.Plot No.1No of gapers39Cornmen tsSand hummocks, standing water. Gapersfound mostly on sand hUIDClocks.;{ilson Be,ach Flat: This flat is composed of rook and shell at its northern end. Thetouth half is mainly sand hUJll.'11ocks with a dense eelgrass cover. Rice Creek divides thesouthern and northern halves of the flat. The south portion of the area tapers off intoa rather,narrowimud flat bordering the eastern shore of the ~a~. About 50 yards southof the "reek the gaper density drops off rapidly. The surveyors walked through aboutIi miles of this flat (only the northerly portion known as Wilson's be:;ch) tc where theb..... outs in close to the road again.Random Plots: Because of the limited size of this bed it was decided that straight-linetransects were of little value here.1st plot: Aun in a northerly direotion parallel to the wa~ers edge and about 100 feetfrom the new highway bridge ( annew road is beLng constructed out to CapeLookout State Park that wi 11 run along the edge of the bay and in, this area,will probaily be filled in over a portion of this bed).No. of gapers22Connnen tssand substratum, eelg;r~ss, standing water.2nd: Run from end of plot number ~. to the waters edge.no. of gapers11CorrJTIen tssubstratum same as above, except for some rocks.3rd: Run shcre~~rd 50 feet inside cf plot No.1No. of gapers17Commentssand, he'avy eelgrass, standmg water o4th: l,un parallel to plot number 1 but 50 feet closer to the water.No. of gapers32Com',entsSame as plot No. 3Notes On /[alk-through of Area South of Nilson Beaoh:This area for the most part is composed of a uniform and slightly soft mud bottom,with a low central pDrtion covered With eelg!,:ass and standing water. Ghost and mudshrimp are very thick in this area, cons tan tly keeping the bot'~om changing wi th theiriTloes3ant digging. Only near the i'filson Beaoh area were gaper olams in anyabundanoe.In the Ii miles oovered, only 14 gaper olams were noted,Area North and West of Chuok's Boat Service.This area continues on the eastern shore around the bend of the channel to where it empties-4-Netarts Survey--_Cont •into t,he ooean. This area extends down into the ohannel ana well below the lowest ofminus ltides. For the most part, digSing; in this area is oonduoted in water 1-2 feetdeep. Most of the area is oharaoterized by a heavy rook rubble substnatum, denselyoovered with brown,red"nd green algae. Here partioularly are-the gaper, Saxidomus1and littleneok tl~selY3iwtermingled. In the water oovered seotions, these olams werefound either on the surfaoe or j;ist under the first layer of heavy rooks. It is pre-sumed that this shallow depth is oaused by the nature of the bottom preventing the olamsfvomig~~gDtg-imytd any depth. Some sand is found at the upbay area near Chuok's BoatServioe, .and g'pers are numerous here in pookets on the sand hummooks. Beoauseof itsfavorable bottom, omly this area, was surveyed.( There seemed to be a good number ofgapers in the rooky areas as noted from wal~king through the .rea.June 13, 1960Surveyors:. E. '!',agner; M. Odemar; R. MaoIntyreTide Rating: -1.1 feet at 0954 hours oorrected for Netarts.Transeot No.1: Started from the edge of the oentral rooky portion and run in a southerlydireotion, parallel to the wa·ters edge and about 100 feet from the sand beaoh borderingthe oliffs on the eastern shore (see fig. 2). Alig\jnment wa.s a point south of Chuok'sboat servioe and the oliff just north of the jaws of the bay.CommentsSame as plot number 1.Same as plot number 1.rook, sand bottom, oovered wL th broJlm algaeand some standing water.__ It""""""Plot No. No. of gapers1 265100 foot skip to avoid a deep water pooket2 613 354 55 66 1Transeot Np. 2: Run 20 feet nearer the ,vaters edge than pimtseot number 1 and startednear the end of tre,nseot number I, plot No._ 6. This area. immediately adjaoent to tran-seot No.1 oontained many more gapers and is more representative of the bed whose mostproduotive parts were rapidly beLng oovered by the rising tide. Thus only a few plotsoould be run before tibe :l<be±Lnooming tide foroed the termination of the survey at 1145-,hours.Plot No. No. of gapers CommentsI 30 sand hummooks, rooks, standing water in plaoeswith a heavy oover of brown, red, .nd greenalgae.2. 26 " " "r.'-5-Netarts SurveyCont.Summary For Area Number I.'j' Square feet surveyed---------------2200Number of gapers observed----------654Gapers per square foot-------------0.297Square feet per gaper--------------3.36AREA No.'4 (Page 19, Bay Clams of Oregon, by L.D. Marriage)June 9, ,1960Surveyors. D. Snow & R. R~oIntyreOn the Bay at 0500 hoursTide rating:' -1,5 feet at 0639 hours oorreoted for Netarts.The surveyors reaohed area 4 after being shown about the bay by Ted Cornet. lJrCornet pointed out the more produotive areas and assured us that we -...ould not find anyoonoentrations of gaper ",lams on the westerly si.de of the bay. He also was of the op-inion that reoent tidal wave aotion had oovered a lot of the beds. He was partioularlyoonoerned with a oookle bed that had been oovered with a heavy layer of silt-like mat-erial. He was also oonvinoed that there ,vas no problem from overpopulation of gaperson the west side.Transeot No, I. This bed is loo9ted direotly aoross the bay from the 4th oreek aboveHioe Creek. The transeot started at~'e'dge of the main ohan "el and ,vas ran in a south-\vesterly direotion along the edge ofa shallow ohannel that runs toward the sandspi ton the ooaan si.de of the bay. The bot'com over whioh this transeot' ran was of a mixedmud-sand oomposition. Just adjaoent to this area a heavy overburden of a pure sand thatappears to be of a migratory nature seemed,to have reoently shifted. Several gaper sho"",were observed in this area. It is suspeoted that the sand reoently oovered this areaand only the olams that were able to exte:dd their siphons above the sand were able tosurvive.COJlh'1len tsmud-sand bottom with eelgrass" " "" " "," " "1 littleneok found, many shrimp holessand bottom, ma') y shrhlp holes" " "-6-Netarts Survey--_Cont.Square feet per baper 175.0l ......These totalslof little value beoause of the small size of the sample.:~~dGaveGput in onlyto show the trend in this area.Notes on walk_through on area no. 4.Beoause of the soattered nature of the olams in area, 4 the st:mdard survey methddswere abandoned in favor af a walk-through. This enabled us to sec more of the flat and!Cet a bet Gel' idea of populations in this area,. In a walk-through, personlel make notesof general bottom oonditions and relative abundanoe of olams and any other pertinent ob-,servatiohs. "lthough filflres are only relative, muoh information oan be gaire d from thistype of observ~tion.Netarts b'r.f is essentially a salt water lagocn that runs parallel to the ocean withonly a minor amoun·~ of fresh water entering from seve!"al s:~113.11 oreeks. Large portio:::Lsof the bay bottom are oovered with unstahle sand that ap~ears to be miGratory in nature.This is partioularly so in the lower (northerly portion) en9LQear the el1tra~'\4 The lowerarea has few clams that are of a sedentary nature. Q? l ::Sedentary olams~ocdur wherevagaries of the ourren ts keep the sands from buryL"!;; them. In the southerly or upperportion of the bay _ you fbd the more stable bottom o.onditions essential for gapergrowth (vrest61"ly shore) 0Going i.."'1 e. -w'Gsterly dir·::;otion and somewhat .f'olloyving the ohannel i1ito this flat taebottomUs.l1a' mixtlilre of dand and mud or simd. The stabili'l;y of this area is L'1dioated 1.1the presenoe of eelgrass and other algaes. This area aeemElddto be ideally sui ted forgaper clam gr01/'rth l however .. only soattered gapers vvere noted throu'ghout the area-. Occas-ionally small concentrstions were observed. ooak&es were observed ll1 large numbers inthe majority of the area,. Although over two hours were spent on this flat, only a small(relatively so) portion of it vms covered. To make any co~olusions as to the exaot statusof the gaper in this area', would be ill advised., however, all iudio9.tions are that thisarea is not overpopulated.This area' at one time had a planting of oysters on it. A few soattered oystersstill exist fuBre and in one o''Oe a lome surviving oyster was fotL'1d. This oyster hada large.luster of e,;g oases on it that had been deposited by the oyster drill Ooenebrajaponioa, the drill was also present. This animal :,as been h:nowu to attaok olams inWashington when oyste!!. were not available, this might be part of the reason for reduoednumbers of gapers L'1 this area oA S~'1d spit area where geoduos (P~~ope generosa) had been observed by looal resi-denti was visited. The only anilll'll observed here was one rough piddook (Zirfaea EPs-bryi)Biologists s~~ple from Area 1.In order to determine the wastage by personal-use dig:::ers in the areas where gaperslittleneoks, and Saxidomus 'are heavily intermingled, a sample was taken. In the area,where diggL~g took plaoe, the flat was still oovered with about 22 inches of water atlow tide. The prooedure followed was thetsame as that used by diggers observed in thearea. A holle is started iII the rocky bottom and then is enlarged. Each shovelful ofsand and rook is examined for clams a,~d oooasionally the water is allcwed tc olear tolook for olams not pioked up on the shovel., It had be'n noted earlier that eaoh holeleUt by dig£,ers alwa,ys oontained several legal olams after the digGers had quit. This-7-ooupled with the faot that the biologist felt that he wa,s trying to be more obsel'vantthan the average digger it was deoided to dig slightly more than a legal limit oflittleneoks and Saxidomus. It is believed th1t the number of olams dug approximatesthe numbers dug by the average sports digger.Resul ts of the biologists sampleTotal area dug out. Approximately 17 square feet to a depth of 7-12 LDohes.Number of Saxidomus dug------------36Number o~ littleneoks dug----------llNumber of gapers dug---------------50Total number of oloms dug----------97Numbe" of olams per square foot----5. 7Ratio of gapers to legal olams (Saxidomus and littlemeok)------1:1.06Number of gapers broken------------17 (wDuld not have survived)Number of G'pers unbroksn----------33 ( would:~&" ....Lprobably only survived for a short period)AN\)mber of gapers mea sured-------,---44 **Summation-------------------------,41~'ZJI!IllIvleau len gth------------------------ 93 .8nnn (3.7")(N=47)3894nnn82.9mm (3.3")(N~ 15) ***890mm59 0 3nnn (2.3")SaxidomusSummationl\'leanLittleneoksSummationMean** Only the gapers from the biologists sample were ~easured.*** Lit"':leneok measurement is that of the longest rib.Ross, MaoL"ltyre & Dale SnowJune 15, 1960.T" •Lower .Netarta Bay NFa,o ifi 0 Ooean.Sand...--------Transeot·CC~--------RandomPlotRooky500 0 500l..Jt'-lI'-l!--l-l.--l-l....LI...L." ~~1Y_~RDS, .~~,.. t.,. "'" ~ ~...'. <",", ....... -:....,.._ ,r._-~~._-----------------------~---------------------"'"Upper Netarts Bay, ,"I,Fourth CreekAbove Rioe Cr. -..,...--~ IChannel ofBay,,. ,'- .", ':.:~ 'f:;;/'..,~Small, " Channel" ,,,,, ,,," "!,,.I 'I.'., ,, ",;, Through., ' I,!.real '., "I,NWhiskyCreekTranseot,... ,.., ,..~ '\ 1. \. \ .,\"~Geoduok• ' Bed, ',,, ',\'->"--...:::1t;;;:;- Sand Area,\500 9 500l-.l'''''I~j\..-L.'-'LI.\-1....I.l...1.il~_.......;;....,...__,YAHDS",,•, \""'. ,~/,I, '," ~ , .., , , ' .",• , , " ", , ,,, , , , ,, ,.' ,Pa,oifioOoean\..... - '- .....,'1'lE'I'tilTS BAY CLAM SURVEY * JUNE, 19&0 page seven\ Ratie Btl g1l.P/U'2 dug till each littleneck lilr butter clam: 1: Jl'.P'eJr cent brlllken gapers, : 34 ?&Mea:2U!i'ements of clams dug by CDS; and fellow: biologists'GapeJ!'s127 120 102 107 J!1l2 85 12-'9 103' 85 87 92' 86.s~ ]01 95 90 83 98 86 96 63 78 89 90 82&Je99 98 89 83 95 101 87 89 94 94 82 9192' 93 92' 97 85 93 94 93(These were dug by CDS ale>nlJ, - 6 were net measurable)108 106 1120 109 85 110 85 JlB76 95 79 88 75 81 79 7674 74 78 71 75 8li 78 72'7Jl 6Jl 7Jl 50 49 45 7089736796 8782' 7777 72798769Nil. measured':447 Totd: 4127fr' Mean length: 93.80 mmButteTc]1IIll2'169 106 IJl8 109No. measured : 47Total: 3894Mean length: 8~85 mmLittlenecks60 72' 64 67 ,72' 65 65 66 66 62' 53 50 45 43 40NIII. measured : 15Total: 890Mean length: 59.33" "'."RoS'S MacIntyreJune 15, 1960• ' . .....L...:..- ,

Netarts clam survey : June 8-9 and 13, 1960

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Netarts clam survey : June 8-9 and 13, 1960

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