Oyster Bay is an inlet in southern

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

which branches off from

Totten Inlet Totten Inlet lies in the southern end of Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. The inlet extends southwest from the western end of Squaxin Passage, and much of the county line between Mason and Thurston counties runs down the center ...

. The bay spans

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a worker who lays bricks to assist in brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutti ...

and

Thurston Thurston may refer to: Places Antarctica * Thurston Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Thurston Island, off Ellsworth Land United Kingdom * Thurston, Suffolk, England, a village and parish ** Thurston railway station United States * Thurston County, Neb ...

counties, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Kennedy Creek empties into the bay at the U.S. Highway 101 overpass. Oyster Bay was named for the

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...

industry it supports. The bay is the site of one of only four oyster reserves in Puget Sound where the Olympia oyster grows. Oyster Bay is one of the most productive chum salmon runs in the state with over 40,000 spawners a year, estimated to be two-thirds of the run that would exist without human impacts.

References

* Findlay, Jean Cammon, and Paterson, Robin, ''Mosquito Fleet of South Puget Sound'', Arcadia Publishing (2008) . Geography of Mason County, Washington Geography of Thurston County, Washington {{ThurstonCountyWA-geo-stub