Tag Archives: Washington’s outer coast

They’ve tried smashing, cementing, shocking and shaking them to control oyster-killing shrimp

female ghost shrimpEver since the shrimp hit the fan this spring, Kim Patten’s life has been a whirlwind. Everyone is asking the same question, Patten said. “What are you going to do about it?”  To which he can only shrug.Over the past 13 years, Patten has tried every method he could think of to control the crawfish-sized invertebrates called ghost shrimp that threaten the famed oyster farms of Washington’s outer coast. Patten thought he had the problem licked when the state Department of Ecology (DOE) approved a plan to spray tidelands with a neurotoxic pesticide.  Read the rest here 17:59