Oyster
The largest oyster-producing body of water in the United States is Chesapeake Bay, although these beds have decreased in number due to overfishing and pollution. Willapa Bay in Washington produces more oysters than any other estuary in the US. Other large oyster farming areas in the US include the bays and estuaries along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Apalachicola, Florida in the east to Galveston, Texas in the west. Large beds of edible oysters are also found in Japan and Australia. In 2005, China accounted for 80% of the global oyster harvest. Within Europe, France remained the industry leader.
Taylor Shellfish Company
Taylor Shellfish Company in Shelton, Washington is the United States' largest producer of aquaculture (farmed) shellfish. The Taylor family started raising Olympia oysters in the 1920s. In the current form, the company, privately held, was started in 1969 as Taylor United by brothers Edwin and Justin Taylor, grandsons of James Y. Waldrip, an early Washingtonian who came to Seattle to work rebuilding after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 before moving south and founding the Olympia Oyster Company in the 1890s. Waldrip's company farmed the Olympia oyster found only in South Puget Sound. Justin Taylor, born 1921, the oldest oyster farmer on Puget Sound in the early 2000s, died in 2011.