Ghost Shrimp

In the ‘Words to Live By’ department, we have all been told that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”  So, when all the to-spray-or-not-to-spray-for-burrowing-shrimp controversy erupted recently, I tried to do a little research on the ‘why’ of the problem — hoping to get some information beyond the knee-jerk reactions I was seeing in much of the media.   As in, if those ghost shrimp are native to our bay, why have they proliferated to threatening numbers just since the 1960s?

The best answer seems to be the decreasing numbers of sturgeon in the bay, possibly because of over-fishing. That makes total sense to me. And it would seem that since the sturgeon are a natural predator of ghost shrimp and the latter have increased to the point of threatening the long-established oyster industry, someone somewhere would have a handle on that off-kilter balance in the bay by now. Lord knows, there are enough regulatory agencies involved with oyster farming. And the problem has been noted for more than fifty years.

Sturgeon

Well, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking for answers. But I did go online to see what would come up if I searched on “Sturgeon in Willapa Bay.” Right away I came across two articles of interest. “Willapa/Naselle Sturgeon Fishing” by LeeRoy Wisner was concerned mainly with the boat launches that fishermen can take when fishing for sturgeon. He says, “There are at least 8 launches that can be used in Willapa Bay.” He goes on to describe them and tell which are best and includes great photos – a wonderful get-started manual for sturgeon fishermen. I’m not sure when it was written. It has a 2004-2013 copyright date at the end. If this information is still viable, it would seem that sturgeon fishing is still alive and well in Willapa Bay.

The second article that came up was “Status Review for North American Green Sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris” by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the United State Geological Survey written in 2002. About Willapa Bay it said: Willapa Bay, along with the Columbia River and Grays Harbor, is one of the estuaries where green sturgeon concentrate in summer… Catches have declined from 3,000-4,000 fish per year in the 1960s to few or none in recent years… Much of this is probably due to reduced size limits and seasonal and area closures…

A Keeper

The study was done in answer to a 2001 petition to list the American green sturgeon as an endangered or threatened species. The conclusion of the study, of course, was that there was not sufficient information to do so.

I can’t quite wrap my mind around all those “facts.” It seems logical to me that if boat launches for sturgeon fishermen are being touted online, someone must be catching sturgeon or at least trying to. On the other hand, if that scientific study is correct and there are no sturgeon being caught, they may not be coming into the bay because their food supply has been cut off, perhaps by spraying of ghost shrimp. Maybe the ecological balance is out of whack. Maybe Fisheries (or someone) ought to be addressing that aspect of things. Maybe they are. But wouldn’t you think that would be Big News (capital B capital N) about now? Just sayin’…

Well… I’m not a scientist and I concede that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Certainly there seem to be more questions than answers.