SEABECK, Wash. - Mary-Cathern Edwards was drawn in by the "plight of the oysters." Strewn high on the beach at Scenic Beach State Park, hundreds of thousands of oysters were barely surviving on the few sips of water they got each day at high tide. Edwards and her 10-year-old granddaughter Hannah Holloway-Miller were among about 65 volunteers who showed up Friday morning to the Central Kitsap beach to save the oysters by moving them closer to the water. It wasn't the usual wildlife-rescue scene. None of the critters getting help Friday were cute or furry. Mike Koslosky of Olalla used to work at a California wildlife refuge and rehabilitation center, where they mended injured birds and small mammals. But "never did we do slimy mollusks or invertebrates," he said. Nonetheless, he was out Friday piling oysters into his wheel barrow and moving them farther down the beach, where they'll get more time in the briny waters of Hood Canal. Just how the oysters washed so far up the beach is a source of mystery and controversy. Alex Bradbury, Puget Sound clam and oyster manager for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, said nobody knows yet how the oysters got there. They do know the oysters can't survive that high on the beach, and the movement was unprecedented. "We've never seen oysters this high on the beach," said Bradbury, whose department conducts an annual survey there. Speculation on the cause so far has centered on the Navy's USS Port Royal. Some have said that the 567-foot guided-missile cruiser could have caused the accident while training at the Dabob Range near Quilcene on Aug. 11. Navy Region Northwest spokesman Sean Hughes said the Navy did receive calls of complaint from neighbors while the Port Royal was in Hood Canal. Reports of the damage came in the morning of Aug. 13. "We're undergoing an investigation now to determine what happened," Hughes said Friday, when he was out on the beach with other volunteers moving oysters. Edwards was thankful for all the help repairing the public beach and suggested it would be a good show if the Navy could organize help to clean the private beaches. "I wonder what kind of damage has been done to the private beaches," she said. At Scenic Beach State Park, about half of the estimated 178,000 struggling of the oysters were moved Friday, but the far north and south ends of the beach need more help.
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