"Don’t see major issues with proposal."
Greg Ballard, Senior Planner for Clallam County
Taylor Shellfish proposes a 30 acre geoduck farm on Dungeness Farm's tideland parcel. The proposal is adjacent to the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge to the west and designated Wildlife Habitat Conservation Areas to the south. Taylor Shellfish apparently feels that expanding the wilderness area on the Olympic Peninsula is fine, as long as they are able to populate the tidelands with PVC.
[Note: This site is an avid supporter of wilderness, including the expansion of wilderness areas on the Olympic Peninsula. To not include the intertidal areas in the Wild Olympics proposal is short sighted. Bill Taylor fully supports the program "so that shellfish companies can continue to grow."]
The proposal describes how they would have a 14 year transformation of tidelands occurring. Up to 5 acres each year would be planted, meaning that after the 2nd year, at any one time, over 10 acres of PVC pipes and netting would cover areas in these tidelands. The parcel is leased through 2028, paying to Dungeness Farms 10% of the revenues and a small amount for acreage planted until harvest. The rest of the revenue generated for geoduck exported to China goes directly to Taylor Shellfish.
[Note: Seattle Shellfish has recently signed a lease which pays 30% to the tideland owner. The owners of Dungeness Farms may want to ask Taylor Shellfish about that.]
There is no description of when harvesting would occur or how much would occur, leaving only speculation to how much sediment would be disturbed. Also left to speculation is what number of wildlife which has become dependent on the Wildlife Refuge and Habitat Conservation areas will become ensnared in the "predator exclusion" netting.
Did any of the preceding help Clallam County
see any major issues?
The JARPA application and other documents submitted to the county may be found here:
https://app.box.com/s/gp0prei7qmvb6iac8d64
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