In 2008, without any type of permitting, Seattle Shellfish covered the tidelands in an area of Spencer Cove with plastic "kiddie pools" that contained geoduck seed. Sometime after that these were removed and an on the water system was set up.
Now Case Inlet shoreline homeowners have appealed to the Shoreline Hearings Board the approval by Mason County for a more massive raft and boom system for a geoduck nursery in Spencer Cove. The controversy is described in an article entitled "Geoduck operations still stuck in the mud" in the Mason County Journal. The project under consideration would add six 14-by-40-foot rafts and a 360-foot log boom supported by eight 12-inch diameter steel pilings to the existing nursery.
Industrializing pristine areas of the shoreline does not comport with the efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound. Following is an aerial view of the "kiddie pools" in 2008 to give an idea of the extent of the unapproved project as it existed at that time.
