Willapa Bay: News on Imidacloprid Pesticide Use Strenghens its Link to Honey Bee Die-off

It's time for a change in Willapa Bay.

 

Stung again.

August 18, 2015: The Rolling Stone writes an article which continues to link imidacloprid (one in the class of neonicotidoids) to honey bee die-off. In Willapa Bay, where shellfish growers proposed spraying this neurotoxin deadly to honey bees in the marine waters of Willapa Bay, they have hired a Public Relations spokes woman (India Simmons, founder of PR Ink) to "massage the message." Worse, on August 8 the Seattle Times reports:

Stung by the bad press, members of WGHOGA closed ranks and hired a public-relations firm. In recent meetings with DOE, they raised the possibility of modifying their plans and applying for another permit to spray.

Change in attitude and change in personnel are needed.
It's time for a change in large corporate shellfish grower mentality and in the belief of Washington State University's Kim Patten that the application of chemicals in Willapa Bay will solve their problems. When asked what he intended to do after the permit to apply imidacloprid was pulled, the Seattle Times reported all he could do "was shrug." WSU needs to suggest that Mr. Patten, 62 years old, consider retiring and bring someone in who is not reliant on the application of chemicals to solve every perceived problem, whether it be native burrowing shrimp or Japanese eelgrass.

Pollinators are far more important than non-native oysters and non-native clams.
There is a crisis with honey bee die-off which will have a far greater impact on the world's food source than non-native Pacific oysters or non-native Manila clams from Willapa Bay will ever have. That corporate shellfish growers still support the possibility of spraying and that Mr. Patten can "only shrug" speaks to their one-dimensional thinking.