Our mission is to protect the habitat of Puget Sound tidelands from the underregulated expansion of new and intensive shellfish aquaculture methods. These methods were never anticipated when the Shoreline Management Act was passed. They are transforming the natural tideland ecosystems in Puget Sound and are resulting in a fractured shoreline habitat. In South Puget Sound much of this has been done with few if any meaningful shoreline permits and with limited public input. It is exactly what the Shoreline Management Act was intended to prevent.

Get involved and contact your elected officials to let them you do not support aquaculture's industrial transformation of Puget Sound's tidelands.

Governor Inslee:

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Fudge Point: Fractured Tidelands Fractured Dreams

In 1991 Ralph Scott had a dream for how Fudge Point and its tidelands would look to future generations:  contiguous tidelands for all associated upland owners to use as a pedestrian easement and an untouched wetland.  Preserved in their natural state, undeveloped.

Fudge Point Tidelands and Wetlands
(click to enlarge)

Taylor Shellfish and Fudge Point Property decided they have a different dream:  a geoduck farm on tidelands between the mean low and extreme low tidelines requiring re-channeling of the wetland outflow in those tidelands.  In November of 2011 they eliminated Ralph Scott's easement and his dream, recorded in 1991.

Ralph Scott's Recorded Easement
(click to enlarge)


The Eastern shoreline of Harstine Island is becoming the new Totten Inlet with geoduck farms growing like a fungus along the shoreline.  Seen below is Taylor's farm south of Wilson Point, showing what Fudge Point will become.  Spencer Cove on the north end of Harstine Island has similar farms.

South of Wilson Point
(click to enlarge)

To believe this activity is not fracturing the tideland habitat of Puget Sound is naive.  "Science" may show a single geoduck farm does not have a significant impact.  But on a cumulative level this activity is fracturing the tideland habitat of Puget Sound.

The Shoreline Management Act was passed to prevent the fracturing of Puget Sound's shoreline area.  Cumulative impacts are real and they are happening now.  Mason County's oversight of this activity?  Nothing.  Perhaps that's why Ralph Scott had his dream of what Fudge Point's tidelands would be used for recorded. 

Whatever the reason, Taylor Shellfish has a different dream for what Puget Sound's tidelands and waters should look like for future generations.
Posted by Protect Our Shoreline at 11:12 AM

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