The Olympic National Park Pacific coast will be closed to the harvest of all shellfish starting Satturday because of the presence of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning toxins in shellfish.

The park’s 73-mile coastline had been scheduled to open for shellfish
harvest beginning Saturday1, but this opening is now delayed until further notice.

The park issued a news release a short time ago.

This closure applies only to the park’s coastline. Toxin levels on the southern Washington coastline have been lower than within the park. However, a decision to close those beaches to harvest may be made separately by the state Department of Health and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in the future.

Here is the rest of the release:

“Human safety is the most important consideration, and after consulting with the Washington State Department of Health, we have enacted this closure,” said Olympic National Park Superintendent Karen Gustin. “We will continue to monitor PSP levels along the coast, and will reopen shellfish harvest when it is safe to do so.”

Shellfish species affected by this closure include hardshell clams (butter, cockles, horse, littleneck, manila), mussels, gooseneck barnacles, Dungeness crab and red rock crab. Razor clam harvest at Kalaloch is already closed until spring 2009 to allow the small clams there an opportunity to grow to a harvestable size.

PSP is produced by a natural marine alga. Often present during the summer months, it is usually absent during fall and winter. However, on Sept. 30, PSP levels within the park were five times the human health threshold established by the Washington Department of Health. PSP samples from Second Beach on Oct. 21 were also above the human health threshold.

Commercial shellfish operations on the southern Washington coast undergo intense human health testing and have not been affected by the current PSP outbreak.

I noticed this morning that Mount Rainier National Park has a couple of new Web cams operating from the new Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center.

The camera facing east looks across the upper parking lot toward the Paradise Inn.

The camera facing west looks down the road toward the original visitor center.

Both cameras offer good views of the area, and should give visitors an idea of what conditions are like at Paradise as winter sets in there.

Want a chance to catch a large rainbow trout? Put some suddenly cheaper gas in your rig and head toward Issaquah and Sammamish next week.

Your target is Beaver Lake, where the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has plans to release 1,800 hatchery rainbows weighing between 3 to 5 pounds each. That's about 3 tons of rainbows waiting to be caught.

The department is scheduled to release the fish next week. The trout were part of an educational display at the state’s Issaquah Hatchery, said a news release from the department.

Beaver Lake is best fished by small boat, although anglers can find places to fish from shore, said Chad Jackson, a state fish biologist.

The lake’s access site is most easily reached by way of East Beaver Lake Drive Southeast, off Southeast 24th Street in Sammamish. Parking for vehicles and boat trailers is limited, and a valid WDFW vehicle access permit must be easily visible in or on vehicles parked at the access site.

Beaver Lake is one of several westside lowland lakes open to fishing year-round. Internal combustion boat engines are prohibited on the lake. The daily bag limit is five fish, and bait anglers must keep the first five trout they catch.

The Summit at Snoqualmie plans to fly the towers into place for its new Silver Fir high-speed quad Thursday morning.

Starting this season riding the Silver Fir lift at Summit Central will no longer take 10 minutes. The new high-speed quad will shorten the ride to just more than four minutes.

“Hopefully it will expose more people to that area,” Summit spokeswomen Holly Lippert said.

The ski area is also adding a new parking lot near the tubing center, a remodeled women’s restroom at Summit Central and new rental gear.