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:

Friday, June 13, 2014

Canadian Intertidal Geoduck Method Greatly Expands Tideland Acreage for Planting

"I can see Canada from my front porch."
 
Power auger used for tube placement
in British Columbia..
Denman Island, British Columbia
(from Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards)
"Drill baby, drill!"
After British Columbia recently announced expanding the acreage of tidelands available for geoduck planting, a new method of tube placement points to even greater production from the tidelands of British Columbia, perhaps Puget Sound as well. Unlike the soft sand found in parts of south Puget Sound which allow for the placement of tubes by pressing them in by foot, the power auger seen above is able to drill down through much rockier sediments.
 
Fracking of the tidelands?
Previously this type of sediment would have prevented tubes from being inserted. Now, by mechanically "fracking" the tidelands and not having to rely on foot pressure, the acreage available for conversion to geoduck cultivation will be expanded significantly. Something none of the regulating agencies have considered.
 
Cracking of the market
At what point the additional supply of geoduck will collapse the market is still to be seen. At this point the average "Joe" can still make money, but as seen in the computer industry, when supply lines shift to the right, prices drop, and average "Joe's" go bankrupt leaving a mess as their legacy.

Will Canada's DFO care?
The Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS) has reported the above to Canada's DFO (Department of Fisheries and Ocean).

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