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:

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Ocean Acidification Blue Ribbon Presentation Video

An interesting and useful presentation from Shallin Busch is available on tvw.org (click here).  She described impacts on biology (species) from lowering pH levels.  Of interest were studies indicating different oysters in their larval stage respond differently.  The native Olympia oyster and Suminoe oyster survived far better than the triploid Pacific oysters, the primary "crop" of the shellfish industry.  Whether growth in the latter stages was impacted is unknown.
See Shallin Busch here:
 http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2012030125B

Co-chair Bill Ruckleshaus asked one of the more important questions on addressing Ocean Acidification:  Will the upwelling of deep sea waters overwhelm any efforts put forth to address land based causes of increasing acidification in Puget Sound?  The deep sea upwelling is currently estimated to be 66% of the cause and will continue to increase over the coming decades as it worsens making the question of just where to focus efforts important.  CO2 emissions were estimated to be 8-17% and decomposition 17-26%.

Ecology's web site on acidification is here:  http://www.ecy.wa.gov/water/marine/oceanacidification.html

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