"There isn't any place I'm aware of that the tunicates are causing harm on the shellfish farms,"

Why would Taylor Shellfish state "There isn't any place I'm aware of that the tunicates are causing harm on the shellfish farms,"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57331539/environmental-programs-fall-victim-to-budget-cuts
"When Washington's Legislature trimmed $30 million, or 27 percent, from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's budget, three employees who had been diving in the Puget Sound to hunt down invasive sea squirts lost their jobs.
The gelatinous invaders, known as tunicates, form a goopy mat on the sea floor, raising fears that they will hurt the shellfish industry, as they have in eastern Canada.
"We are basically addressing tunicates on an emergency basis only," said Allen Pleus, Washington state's aquatic invasive species coordinator..."There isn't any place I'm aware of that the tunicates are causing harm on the shellfish farms," said Bill Dewey, of Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, Wash."
Images from Woodshole seem to clearly show non-native invasive Tunicates causing harm at Taylor Shellfish's mussel rafts in Totten Inlet:
http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/stellwagen/didemnum/images/pdf/wash4b.pdf
The British Columbia Shellfish Growers Association says this on their Aquatic Invasive Species page:
"On Canada’s East coast, invasive tunicates have resulted in significant grow-out, harvesting and processing challenges for the mussel farming industry."
"Tunicates can out compete and suffocate filter feeding bivalves such as mussels and oysters."

Taylor Shellfish has a great deal to loose if their mussel farm is found to be a vector for non-native invasive tunicates.  Taylor Shellfish has a great deal to loose if these tunicates smother their cultured mussels (which the Woodshole images seem to show clearly happening).  Taylor Shellfish has a great deal to loose if what they believe isn't currently causing harm begins to smother oysters which other growers in Totten Inlet and south Puget Sound are culturing.

Sometimes it is better to react to a problem before it becomes an ecological disaster.  Washington State should reconsider its budget cut which eliminated the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's program to control invasive tunicates.  Taylor Shellfish should reconsider their statement, for the good of everyone, and work towards helping reinstate funding for WDFW to control this very real threat to Puget Sound's ecosystem.