Clam gardens, also known as sea gardens, are an ancestral Indigenous aquaculture technology that provide place-based food relations and strengthen community ties, while also supporting climate adaptation and coastal restoration. These systems date back at least 3,500 years, demonstrating their remarkable resilience to the impacts of climate change along the Northwest Coast. Constructed of rock walls at the low tide line, clam gardens modify the beach slope into productive and level terraces that support an increased growth rate of clams as well as overall clam abundance. Sea gardens also boost the overall biodiversity of the beach, providing an array of other traditional First Foods like various edible seaweeds and invertebrates, thereby promoting healthy and biodiverse coastal seascapes.

Olivia’s project, co-developed with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, examines how the  ?itƏkwbixw ‘s Swinomish Clam Garden supports generational food abundance in times of climate stress. Currently, the Swinomish Tribe is the first and only coastal Tribe in Washington to revitalize their clam garden practice. Through this work, they are learning more about how Indigenous Aquaculture is being impacted by contemporary climate stressors. While ancestral sea gardens have demonstrated resilience against climate stressors, the Pacific Northwest is currently experiencing the effects of ocean acidification sooner and more intensely than other parts of the world. With increasingly warmer ocean temperatures, the amplified impacts of ocean acidification make it difficult for shellfish to build their shells and pose a threat to shellfish harvest, a significant First Food for coastal Tribes in Washington.

During her time as NW CASC Fellow, Olivia’s research with the Swinomish Tribe aims to understand how clam gardens respond to warming ocean temperatures by focusing on invertebrate and seaweed biodiversity and abundance along the clam garden wall. She will conduct surveys along the clam garden wall and at a control site that look at the abundance and biomass of invertebrates and kelp that are traditional foods. These surveys will focus on how the biomass and abundance of these culturally significant food species might change as the clam garden becomes more established, as well as how the warming ocean temperatures could impact these species long term. The research goals behind this project have been guided by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and the results will be synthesized and shared out with their Fisheries Team as well as with the greater community at large. This work will help support long-term surveying efforts to highlight how newly revitalized sea gardens support intergenerational food production for the community as the climate continues to change.