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:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Imazamox Comments to Ecology Posted


OVERWHELMING OPPOSITION

The Department of Ecology has posted comments received on their proposal to issue a permit for the application of Imazamox in Puget Sound, Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay to control Japanese eelgrass.  These comments from citizens, government agencies and organizations are overwhelmingly opposed to this permit being issued.
(click here for comments)

Long recognized for providing protective habitat for forage fish; being a food source for migratory birds; and providing surface area for Diatoms to grow on, the shellfish industry was able to convince the Noxious Weed Board it is a Class C Noxious Weed.  This in turn lead to the Department of Ecology's proposal to consider whether the herbicide Imazamox should be applied on commercial shellfish farms (a term not defined by anyone) in Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and Willapa Bay.
(click here to read about eelgrass and habitat benefits)

COMMENTS PROVIDED INCLUDE:

US Fish and Wildlife:  Therefore we do not at this time support development of a NPDES and State Waste Discharge General Permit addressing the application of imazamox on commercial shellfish beds.
Department of Natural Resources:  DNR does not support issuance of a NPDES permit to allow imazamox to be broadly used to control Zostera japonica on aquaculture farms at this time.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:  The potential for adverse impacts to native eelgrass is of considerable concern to WDFW due to the high ecological value of native eelgrass to birds and aquatic species, including salmon.
Anderson Island Tidelands Group; Case Inlet Shoreline Association; Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat; Olympic Environmental Council; Sierra Club; Washington Waterfowl Association:  All are opposed to the widespread application of Imazamox.
Citizen Commentor:  ...a vast habitat is denied to countless organisms for the sake of profit from conveniently expanded production of invasive [and non-native] Manila clams..

Forgotten in the rush to react to another demand from the shellfish industry is the reason Japanese eelgrass has become a problem on commercial shellfish beds is because of another Department of Ecology permit which allowed for the spraying of Carbaryl to control ghost shrimp.  When this native species was killed off by the shellfish industry, sediment density changed and eelgrass moved in. 

What will be the consequence of killing off eelgrass?  Using your rear view mirror to drive down the freeway isn't a good idea.
Posted by Protect Our Shoreline at 2:20 PM

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