Joth Davis, PhD
Co-Founder / Chair of the Board
Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, owner of Baywater Shellfish Company, and long-time leader in shellfish aquaculture and restoration.
Pacific Hybreed
Breeding Better Shellfish for Future Generations
Higher yielding, more resilient farmed shellfish for a growing global industry.
Who we are
Commercial shellfish breeding for the West Coast — and beyond
As the world population approaches 10 billion by 2050, demand for protein will require innovation that terrestrial agriculture cannot scale without irreparable harm. Farmed fish, shellfish, and seaweeds remain vulnerable to climate change, ocean acidification, and emerging diseases.
Based in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Hybreed is establishing the first commercial shellfish breeding programs for U.S. West Coast aquaculture and beyond — creating tools and strategies to improve yield and resilience, and advancing the science of shellfish genetics.
Scientific mission
Improve yield and resilience through disciplined breeding
- Provide disciplined commercial shellfish breeding programs, initially for the U.S. West Coast shellfish industry and then on a global scale.
- Improve the yield, resilience, and biosecurity of farmed shellfish through advanced breeding approaches that include crossbreeding, selection, and induced polyploidy.
- Help family farms meet growing demand by optimizing hybrids for local growing conditions, increasing yields on existing farm footprints.
- Provide solutions to climate change, emerging shellfish diseases, ocean acidification, and other existential threats to the industry.
Leadership
Improving yield and enhancing resilience
Founded by internationally recognized experts in shellfish biology and genetics, with decades of research and commercial farming experience.
Dennis Hedgecock
Co-Founder / Chief Science Officer Emeritus
Paxson H. Offield Emeritus Professor in Fisheries Ecology at USC, Fellow of the AAAS, and internationally recognized expert in shellfish genetics with over 140 scholarly publications.
Thinking globally, acting locally
Pacific Hybreed aims to become a global reference for shellfish genetics — while supporting West Coast working waterfronts, multi-generational family farms, and the communities that sustain them.
Explore our scienceCollaborations
