Zangle Cove and Army Corps Lawsuits: Like a geoduck's growth, the process of law moves slowly.

Why do lawsuits have to be filed to prevent this

from happening to Puget Sound's tidelands?

Zangle Cove: Like a fungus, PVC and netting

begin to spread over the tidelands of Zangle Cove,

adding to that spread throughout Puget Sound.

"Plastic free July" is over. Back to planting 

PVC tubing in Puget Sound's tidelands.

 

Puget Sound's entire food web

is being impacted by this.

1: Zangle Cove/Wild Fish Conservancy/Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat vs Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Pacific Northwest Aquaculture 

Geoduck are grown for nothing more than satisfying a Chinese superstition with what Washingtonians consider a "junk clam". This tideland owner claims he "wants to feed the world". In fact, the "world" he refers to is little more than the elite in China who are able to afford a $100/pound clam and a few curious tourists. After clearing the tidelands of what is believed to be the oldest living species, up to 168 years old, the operator returned and populated the tidelands with PVC piping and netting, transforming these tidelands forever.

Zangle Cove Lawsuit Papers - Why Hydraulic Permits should be required.

Opening Brief

Protect Zangle Cove, The Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat and the Wild Fish Conservancy have filed a suit against Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife demanding hydraulic permits be required for these activities. Unlike a dock or bulkhead, these structures being placed within Puget Sound's waters and tidelands avoid any oversight by WDFW, the result of nothing more than a flawed interpretation of a flawed Attorney General opinion. 

As detailed in the petitioners opening brief, filed by Lane Powell's Claire Loebs and Richard Lintermans, WDFW not requiring HPA's for impacts to aquatic habitat from aquaculture's actions was not a legislative action but a misreading of an AG opinion. In that opinion, they accurately state:

"..no mention is made of aquaculture’s other potential harmful effects to wild fish that the Hydraulic Code might prevent, such as the destruction of habitat, removal of food sources, and release of pollutants." (p.12)

Response to Motion for Judgement - "a distraction and a waste of judicial resources"
In addition to the owner's waste of Puget Sound's natural resources in the quest for extracting revenue from Washington's most valuable marine ecosystem - the intertidal area over which waters ebb and flow daily - papers filed by the operator and owner were described this way:

"PNA’s [Pacific Northwest Aquaculture] Motion for Judgment is untimely, will waste the resources of the Court, and in the end, would have little impact on the practical resolution of any matter before the Court. The Court should decline to consider the Motion for Judgment separate from the hearing on the merits"

2: Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat/Center for Food Safety vs US Army Corps - Cumulative impacts matter and they are real. 

The things you discover in discovery.

In a separate but related lawsuit the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat and the Center for Food Safety have filed suit against the US Army Corps claiming they did not adequately consider cumulative impacts in their approving of permits for aquaculture. During the period of discovery, in which information is presented by various parties to be used in their case, a draft of a cumulative impact analysis by the Corps was found. The Coalition found within that draft the following:

“The proposed action is likely to adversely affect designated critical habitat for several species listed under the ESA including Puget Sound Chinook salmon, Hood Canal summer run chum salmon, and Puget Sound steelhead.” p. 101

“Given the magnitude of the impacts in acreage, the importance of eelgrass to the marine ecosystem, and the scale of the aquaculture impacts relative to other stressors, the impacts are considered significant.” p. 103

“The action does threaten a violation of State requirements under the Shoreline Management Act to achieve no net loss of eelgrass and Federal requirements to protect eelgrass imposed under the ESA for aquaculture activities. The proposed action is not consistent with either of these requirements.” p. 101

 “The conclusion therefore is that significant cumulative effects to surf smelt and sand lance spawning habitat would occur due to the proposed action.” p. 112

“The proposed action is inconsistent with State requirements under the SMA to protect forage fish spawning habitat.” p. 111

 Additional comments in papers filed in response to those filed by the Corps and Taylor Shellfish are found in the PLAINTIFF COALTION’S REPLY IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, and PLAINTIFF COALITION’S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT. In that filing, attorney Karl G Anuta  notes:

"... the Corps and Taylor (hereafter collectively referred to as “Defendants”) present a range of factual arguments that appear to be little more than an attempt to confuse the issues at hand. Defendants also ask the court to ignore the documents and actual facts present in the Record..."

"... the Corps failed to take all the steps required by NEPA, and the CWA. The Corps ignored the analysis of their own staff about the significant impacts that NWP 48 was having and was likely to have in the future."

 "The arguments presented by Defendants to try to justify what the Corps did are both factually and legally invalid. Defendants neither make compelling arguments that support the agency position, nor successfully challenge the arguments brought by CPPSH. The positions taken by counsel for the Defendants are, for the most part, little more than post hoc rationalization efforts that are not consistent with the Decision Documents in the actual Record."

Get involved. Donations are tax deductible.
Puget Sound's marine ecosystem supports a wide diversity of species which are being impacted by industrial aquaculture. It is not benign and impacts are cumulative. You can help with donations to the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat; Wild Fish Conservancy; and Center for Food Safety.

Industrial Aquaculture: Hear how the critical marine ecosystem is being put at risk by indusrial aquaculture.

CONTACT:         Darlene Schanfald, Vice-Chair

                           Sierra Club North Olympic Group

                             360-681-7565    darlenes@olympus.net

                            

INDUSTRIAL AQUACULTURE

FOOD or FOLLY?   LOSING THE WILD?

Saturday    13 October 2018     3–5 PM

Historic Dungeness Schoolhouse 

2781 Towne Rd, Just off E. Anderson Road

Sequim, WA

 The Sierra Club’s North Olympic Group and the Sierra Club ChapterWater Salmon Committee invites the public to join them for this important forum about how our oceans are being commercialized for the few and the losses that follow.

We are pleased to have the following speakers present their work from years of experience.

  

Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director, Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC)  

The Success of the Our Sound, Our Salmon Campaign: Phasing Out Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture in Puget Sound. 

Kurt Beardslee is the executive director and co-founder of the Wild Fish Conservancy. For over a decade Kurt and his science staff have investigated the substantial risk open-water Atlantic salmon aquaculture places on the Pacific Northwest’s wild salmon.

In spring of 2017, WFC launched the Our Sound,Our Salmon (OSOS) campaign with the goal of phasing out Atlantic salmon net pens from Puget Sound.  The OSOS campaign was fundamental to the passage of Washington’s recent net pen legislation marking the largest legislative removal of Atlantic salmon net pens in the world.

Following the 2017 Cypress Island collapse of Cooke Aquaculture pens that released 260,000 penned Atlantic salmon into the wild, WFC staff collected tissue samples from the escapees for that revealed 100% positive test results for Piscine Reovirus (PRV), a highly contagious and debilitating salmonid disease. Genetic sequencing revealed the virus to be of Icelandic origin marking the first time this foreign strain of the virus was found in Pacific waters. 

In his talk, Kurt will discuss the numerous risks posed by farming Atlantic salmon in open-water net pens as well as potential land-based closed containment solutions for this industry. He will give a brief overview of WFC’s current litigation to hold Cooke Aquaculture accountable under the Clean Water Act for releasing 260,000 non-native Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound.  He will also discuss WFC’s ongoing Endangered Species Act (ESA) suit against the federal government for its failure to adequately protect ESA-listed species from the harm caused by industrial Atlantic salmon net pens.

Laura Hendricks, Founding Director Coalition To Protect Puget Sound Habitat.    Shellfish and Disappearing Beaches                                     

Over the last 11 years, Laura Hendricks’s Coalition has educated the public and regulators on shellfish aquaculture’s harm to WA State’s marine life. Hendricks represented citizens against the shellfish industry at a hearing before the Washington State Shorelines Hearings Board and won the case to protect eelgrass, a WA State Appeals Court precedent-setting case.

Hendricks will give an update about pending legal action by the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, Protect Zangle Cove, and Wild Fish Conservancy filed against the WA Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).  That suit demands an end to WDFW’s exemption of industrial shellfish aquaculture projects from Hydraulic Project Approvals (HPA).  HPAs are state standards designed and required to protect fish and marine habitats. 

“With threatened Southern Resident killer whales and endangered native salmon at extreme risk, our state agencies have failed to implement the environmental protections that are critical to the broad scale ecological recovery of Puget Sound,” says Patrick Townsend, president of Protect Zangle Cove. “The action we are taking today is one important step toward restoring sanity to the recovery process. We must protect the tidelands from further loss of ecological function or we will see the loss of iconic species so important to the people of Washington State.” 

  

Alfredo Quarto, Co-director and Co-founder of Mangrove Action Project (MAP)

Question Your Shrimp, A consumer Awareness Campaign

For twenty-five years, Alfredo Quarto has worked with indigenous cultures around the world helping them restore their mangrove forests and way of life, prior to corporations having destroyed their ecosystems to industrialize the raising of shrimp. He will have a short video about these villages and mangrove trees.

Quarto is a veteran campaigner with over 40 years of experience in organizing and writing on the environment and human rights issues.  Formerly an aerospace engineer, his experiences range over many countries and several environmental organizations, with a long-term focus on ocean issues, forestry, indigenous cultures, and human rights.  Prior to MAP, he was the executive director of the Ancient Forest Chautauqua, a multimedia traveling forum with events in 30 West Coast cities on behalf of old-growth forests and indigenous dwellers.

Anne Mosness, Go Wild Campaign                                                           Current and Pending Efforts of the Federal Government to Raise Penned Fish

Anne Mosness has been tracking the federal NOAA Department of Commerce in its push to raise penned salmon in offshore waters, beyond jurisdictions and regulations of states.  She will speak on the current pending efforts, and losses, of such government efforts.  The public will hear about the recent Center for Food Safety legal win for fishing and public interest groups that challenged the Department of Commerce's rules permitting industrial aquaculture offshore in U.S. federal waters.

Anne Mosness is a fisherwoman that fished Copper River and Bristol Bay, Alaska for decades, a multi-general family profession.  She secured a position with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and founded the Go Wild Campaign. She has worked for several other national environmental and food organizations, received a fellowship from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, represented US fisheries at UN forums and Slow Food/Slow Fish conferences in Italy, and other global and national events focused on sustainable foods and fishing, seafood labeling, organic certification, marine ecosystem health. Anne has been a long time contributor to the Puget Consumer Coop’s Sound Consumer magazine.  Her latest article in the PCC magazine isentitled,  "Wild salmon, killerwhales and us" published July, 2018. 

  

Cosponsoring the event are Friends of Miller Peninsula State Park, Olympic Environmental Coalition, Olympic Forest Coalition. and Protect Peninsula’s Future.

The October 13 event is free.  Handouts from the sponsoring and presenting organizations will be available.  Coffee and tea will be served.  

The Extinction of a Species: What happens when people sit back and industry stays focused on regulations.*

What Extinction Looks Like

Get involved.*

Talequah (J35) and her dead calf.

And now, another.

Following the recent death of a newborn calf carried over 1,000 miles for 17 days, another of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales has died. The Washington Post writes on the looming extinction of an iconic Northwest species. Despite attempts to save "Scarlet" (J50) the 3 year old female has been declared dead, leaving 74 of the endangered species remaining.

Get involved. PCC markets has written on the problems and steps you can take as individuals while government agencies hold collaborative meetings, largely driven by the interests of corporations who see Puget Sound and the waters and tidelands of the northwest as a palate to generate profits from. At the expense of the very foundation on which the food chain is based.

(Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat)

The Center for Whale Research put it this way: “The message brought by J50, and by J35 and her dead calf a few weeks ago, is that the [southern resident killer whales] are running out of reproductive capacity and extinction of this population is looming, while the humans convene task forces and conference calls that result in nothing, or worse than nothing, diverting attention and resources from solving the underlying ecological problems that will ultimately make this once-productive region unlivable for all.”

*In addition to steps in the PCC article, Pierce County will hold a meeting on its updated Shoreline Master Program on Monday, September 17th.. The Department of Ecology has told the County there are a number of regulations which must be dropped or added, many at the demands from attorneys from the shellfish industry. When people sit back, they will get what an industry and agencies feel is best for them. Get involved. Industry is.

Pierce County SMP Update: County Complains to DOE

Shoreline Master Plans: Local Discretion

or 

Department of Ecology Mandate?

September 17 - Before the Community Development Committee

October 2 - Before the County Council

Email: Dave Risvold - dave.risvold@piercecountywa.gov

County Council Contacts: https://www.piercecountywa.gov/4460/Contact-the-Council

Pierce County is in the process of reviewing and ratifying its Shoreline Master Plan update. Part of the update process has included responding to the Department of Ecology's required changes. In a letter dated June 27, Pierce County wrote of the "...apparent inability to exercise local discretion in certain areas of shoreline management."

Specifically, Pierce County writes:

"Pierce County would prefer to prohibit the dumping of dredged material within the State's designated Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve due to various factors including the existence of alternative dredged material disposal sites within the County."

Further:

"Pierce County would also prefer to prohibit certain aquaculture activities in proximity to estuaries and within select bays and inlets that are developed with high density residential densities."

"Obligating the County to accept uses in inappropriate areas that will result in unavoidable impacts and user conflicts is unfortunate." 

Not allowed by Ecology:
18. Aquaculture is prohibited in Estuaries within 300 feet of the mouth of freshwater streams (as measured at extreme low tide).
19. Aquaculture is prohibited adjacent to residential neighborhoods in Horsehead Bay, Wollochet Bay, Lay Inlet and adjacent to Raft Island due to water quality and visual impacts.
d. Disposal of dredged material within the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve
17. With the exception of Olympia Oyster propagation which is a conditional use, new commercial shellfish aquaculture operations are prohibited within the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve.

For complete document showing what was struck by DOE, added by DOE, and why, see this link:
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/71099/Required-Changes-Document

For DOE's "recommended changes" see this document:
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/71096/Recommended-Changes-Document

Farmed Salmon: An Industry in Transition to Enclosed Operations - The old model is dead.

"the economics are all there for us

[Atlantic Sapphire, Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms] 

and 10 more [companies] in terms of demand.”

(Whole Oceans chief development officer Ben Willauer)

UndercurrentNews, August 16

Farmed salmon is an industry in transition, moving from open net pen operations to upland/enclosed operations. In the United States, three major developments are currently underway with 2 in Maine and 1 in Florida. The latter, Atlantic Sapphire's, is expected to supply up to 10% of the US demand for farmed salmon when completed. Whole Oceans in Maine already has sold out its first 10 years of production.

Atlantic Sapphire's "Bluehouse"

All operations are all withing one location.

There are both ecosystem and economic advantages to the change in how salmon are grown. The risk to the native ecosystem and habitat from virus, waste, and escapes are eliminated with enclosed systems. Placing enclosed operations closer to population centers minimizes the energy wasted in moving salmon smolt to the pens, well boats needed to treat disease, and energy wasted in moving salmon to markets from the pens at maturity. 

High cost of transportation

is collapsed 

with land based operations.

(from Atlantic Sapphire)

There are active arguments against the transition, but all fall by the wayside on closer examination.

Too much fresh water is used: Open net pen operations currently require the same amount of fresh water to hatch and grow out small salmon for transport to their open pens. Salt water required for grow out to market size would be drawn in from the ocean or deep salt aquifers, representing virtually nothing. Further, once drawn, the water is recirculated, and filtered, with the waste contained and not allowed to spread throughout the environment as it does in open net pen operations.

Too much energy is required for pumps: This argument ignores the evolution - if not revolution - also currently taking place in the energy field. Whether in the form of wind turbines (currently used at Atlantic Sapphire's Denmark facility) solar cells, or tidal turbines, these operations are able to easily produce much of the power needed. As seen in the image above, reducing energy requirements for current open net pen operations is simply not possible (e.g., there are no electric boats nor planes).

Land is scarce: While land may be scarce in some European countries, this is simply not the case in north america. Further, even where land is scarce, the size of the facilities maximizes the land used to produce protein for consumption. As seen in the image below from Atlantic Sapphire's Bluehouse in Denmark, the tanks use for grow out are immense in height.

Rural jobs are at risk: Some jobs may be lost, but many will be created as construction and operation of these new facilities begins.

Enclosed/upland salmon growing operations will revolutionize and change forever the farmed salmon industry. Disease and waste entering the natural ecosystems and escapes impacting native species will be eliminated. While companies operating in the United States and British Columbia will resist the transition, it will happen, with capital and jobs flowing to those areas supporting this transition. The market will demand it as more and more problems with open net pen operations are brought to light.

Healthy, sustainably grown salmon is here now

and it won't stop coming.

Thurston County Shoreline Master Program Updated Files On-line

Get involved: Thurston County has announced updated files having been added to its online site. Documents added/updated include the Draft Shoreline Master Program regulations and associated appendices. A County Commissioners meeting will be held September 12 where a presentation on the proposed updates will be given (see below for time and location). This update, in the beginning phases, will control developments along the shorelines, tidelands and waters of Thurston County. The public is encouraged to participate (see below for were to send comments).

From Thurston County:

SHORELINE MASTER PROGRAM DOCUMENTS NOW ON-LINE 
  
Thurston County government is updating its shoreline codes, also called the Shoreline Master Program (SMP).  The documents page has been updated to include the remaining appendices of the Draft SMP Document for review and comment.
 
The complete set of draft SMP documents are online here:  https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/planning/Pages/shorelines-update-docs-list.aspx 
 
The SMP document website contains the following:
 
Shoreline Master Program Document
 
Appendix A:   Shoreline Environmental Designation Report - with supporting documents and maps
Appendix B:   Mitigation Options to Achieve No-Net Loss
Appendix C:   Shoreline Restoration Plan
Appendix D:   Channel Migration Zone map data
 
Inventory and Characterization Report - with supporting documents and maps
 
Cumulative Impacts Analysis Report - with supporting documents/maps
 
A briefing with the Board of County Commissioners is scheduled for September 12, 2018 from 3:30-4:00pm to discuss proposed updates. The public is welcome to attend. 
  
MEETING DETAILS

DATE           Wednesday, September 12, 2018

TIME           3:30 pm - 4:00 p.m.

LOCATION   Thurston County Courthouse Complex
                    Building 1, Room 280
                    2000 Lakeridge Drive SW
                    Olympia, WA  98502 
  
LEARN MORE ABOUT SHORELINE CODES & THE UPDATE:

• Find draft documents for the proposed shoreline codes update on the County's website.
• Read the County's answers to frequently asked questions about shoreline codes online.
• See the current code which is called the Shoreline Master Program 1990.

  
HOW TO SUBMIT COMMENTS & PROVIDE INPUT

You can send comments via email or mail.

• Email comments to smp@co.thurston.wa.us or to the Thurston County Planning Commission
• Send written comments to:
•        Shoreline Codes Update
•        Thurston County Community Planning Division
•        2000 Lakeridge Drive
•        Olympia, WA  98503

There is currently no deadline for sending comments, but the process is moving forward.
 
  
HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION OR TALK TO SOMEONE

If you have questions, please contact the County's Senior Planner and SMP Project Manager, Brad Murphy. Email smp@co.thurston.wa.us or call 360-867-4465
  

Sincerely,

Thurston County Community Planning Staff
  

PCC Markets Writes on Southern Resident Orca With Ecosystem Wide View

Get involved:  Tell your grandchildren

you helped preserve 

Southern Resident Orca

not

watched them go extinct.

A young orca and Chinook salmon near San Juan Island. 

Image: National Marine Fisheries Service permit #19091.

PCC Markets provides a piece penned by Anne Mosness on ecosystem wide impacts resulting in the endangered Southern Resident Orca population threatened with extinction in our lifetime. Impacts from development range from impassable culverts, dams and industrial level aquaculture activities threatening habitat for both forage fish and Chinook salmon, the former a food source for the salmon, the latter the food source for the Orca. The article ends with suggestions on actions to take, copied below.

WHAT WE CAN DO

• Dispose of unused drugs in garbage. Do not flush down the toilet.
• Don’t wash your car in the driveway or on the street. Wash your car on the lawn to filter oily chemicalrunoff — or take it to a car wash where suds and chemicals are diverted to a water treatment plant, away from storm drains that empty into Puget Sound. It is illegal to let detergents and contaminated waste enter storm drains in King and Snohomish counties. If you do, you could be fined.
• Switch to an electric car.
• Stencil “No Dumping — Drains to Sound” at your neighborhood storm drains. Contact public works or storm water maintenance in your city, or the following, for stencils, paint and guidance.

Seattle – carlton.stinson@seattle.gov or 206-684-7624

Bothell – christi.cox@bothellwa.gov or 425-806-6790

Burien – marye@burienwa.gov or 206-248-5511

Edmonds – steve.fisher@edmondswa.gov or 425-275-4801

Kirkland – wayers@kirklandwa.gov or 425-587-3859

Redmond – jcapis@redmond.gov or 425-556-2865

• Consider commenting to our U.S. senators and Gov. Inslee about the four lower Snake River dams. See wildsalmon.org.
• Join Sierra Club’s Water/Salmon Committee and learn more here.

What Geoduck Tariffs Mean to Puget Sound: Good Bye Honey, Things have Changed

Packin' Up, Movin' Out

Goodbye Honey Bucket

Will this really be missed?

(and did this mess get to where it was going?)

What could possibly go wrong?

According to recent press releases, geoduck farmers are "freaking out" over the recent 25% tariff imposed on geoduck grown in Puget Sound. The Chinese, in one action, may have done more to preserve and possibly restore Puget Sound's intertidal area than a decade of efforts from people concerned over the transformation brought on by PVC at planting and liquification of sediments at harvesting. While unknown whether it will last, what is becoming clear is some companies seem to be standing on thin legs and are at risk of failure.

Money for Nothin'

Kicks for Free

At the Expense of Puget Sound's 

Intertidal Habitat

(and your leased tidelands)

"You'll get rich. And, if not, well, they're your tidelands, not mine."

A recent opinion piece in the Seattle Time by Jim Gibbons, founder of Seattle Shellfish, stated prices have dropped 40% due to the tariff imposed. Worried about whether his business will be able to survive, he wrote he will be curtailing "growth" and cutting back on planting. Whether the cutting back and curtailments will occur on leased tidelands, whose owners were told of great wealth to come for doing nothing from these leases, or on tidelands privately held by Seattle Shellfish, was not made clear. What was made clear is that the founder of Seattle Shellfish is concerned about a breach in the moat which had surrounded this industry's model.

In the end,

aren't we all brothers?

Panopea japonica, Panopea generosa

"both nuclear genes revealed low genetic divergence 

between P. generosa and P. japonica"

North Korea's new secret weapon threatening the northwest: Panopea japonica?

In the piece penned by Mr Gibbons, he noted Puget Sound is not the only place the Chinese are able to source geoduck. He notes Mexico, Canada and North Korea as alternatives (not mentioned was New Zealand). In a 2015 study on genetic differences between "geoduck" from different geographic areas, the point was made that there was a "low genetic divergence" between geoduck from the northwest and Asia. So why would someone pay exorbitant prices for something grown in the US when close to the same thing, if not the same thing, is able to be grown and harvested in Asian waters? They won't. And for that reason, Mr. Gibbons, Bill Dewey with Taylor Shellfish, and a myriad of small operators,  rightly worry that in fact, a moat has been breached and things have changed.

Lowest Tides In Years During "No Plastic July"

It's "Plastic Free July"

There's More Than

Straws, Forks and Spoons

To Worry About

Tomorrow, July 13, and this weekend will see some of the lowest tides and highest elevation changes Puget Sound has seen in years. In south Puget Sound, Friday the 13th, at 12:44PM, will see tidal lows of -3.9. On Saturday, between 1:30 and 8:30, a tidal elevation change of over 19' will occur, with all water flowing through the Tacoma Narrows.

(From: NOAA Tide Predictions)

(From DeepZoom Nautical Charts)

These low tides will expose a part of Puget Sound's marine ecosystem rarely seen. Coupled with the warm weather and sunny skies it is a rare opportunity to get out and experience what only Washington can.

What other plastics need

to be kept out of Puget Sound?

Remember, it's Plastic Free July, so leave your plastic straws, forks and spoons at home. If you see plastic in any form, take a picture to remind yourself that plastic forks and straws are not all Puget Sound's marine habitat should be protected from.

Mason County Residents Question Geoduck Lease By DNR on Stretch Island

Is removing some of the few remaining tidelands

available to the public in the state wide interest?

Stretch Point State Park and the public tidelands

being leased are both accessible by boat. 

An emergency Port of Grapeview meeting provided Mason County residents an opportunity to question the wisdom of DNR leasing 4.6 acres to Allen Shellfish for a geoduck operation. The lease was described as "the hot topic" of the emergency meeting, held days before its regularly scheduled meeting. At the meeting it was decided to request DNR extend for 90 days the comment period on the proposal so that citizens could gain a better understanding of just how the proposal came to be and what exactly it would mean.

Is this how RFP's for public tidelands

are supposed to be handled?

You give me this now, I'll give you a "piece" later.

As background, in 2006 and 2007, DNR decided to lease a number of tideland parcels to geoduck farmers. Responses to the requests for proposals (RFP's) were received from operators and "winners" were chosen based on a formula applied to various aspects of the responses. After a public outcry, DNR chose to hold off on executing any leases at the time to consider the impacts. During that time horse trading between growers, with DNR's apparent consent ensued, with growers agreeing  to trade one lease for another. As seen in the letter above, Case Cove felt it was in their interest to convince Allen Shellfish to give up their lease in front of Case Cove owner Kent Kingman's property, which Allen Shellfish agreed to do, for another lease and an undefined "piece" at a later time.

[Note: It is unclear whether the "trade" is in effect any longer as Mr. Kingman's Case Cove was administratively dissolved by the State in 2012. Mr. Kingman also had challenges with Pierce County due to aquaculture activities taking place on his privately held tidelands without a permit, resolved when Mr. Kingman agreed not to harvest the clams he had planted.]

Twelve years later, we arrive at the present time with DNR considering an execution of a lease for the use of public tidelands, apparently decided on in 2006. It is not known whether Allen Shellfish was asked to reconsider its 12% of gross geoduck revenues or if DNR considered the possibility of putting the tidelands out for bid again as they do timberland and wild geoduck tracts. What is known is that many of the public still feel it is not in the state's interest to remove some of the few remaining public tidelands, whether accessible by boat or otherwise.

(from Intrafish: requires an account to read

the complete article and quotes from Bill Dewey)

Today, we also have another variable: a President who has started a trade war with the country where it is estimated up to 90% of geoduck sold are exported to. In response, China has placed a 25% tariff on geoduck from the US (i.e., south Puget Sound). What will happen in the likely event they discover geoduck from Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and even from their own tidelands look and taste the same as those from south Puget Sound? Anyone invested in the stock market in 2000 will tell you what happens when a bubble pops.

Puget Sound geoduck are not different

than Canadian, Alaskan, New Zealand, or Chinese.

Get involved. These leases of some of the few public tidelands remaining were not a good idea in 2006 and they are less of a good idea today. This is a market in a state of high risk, as the stock market was in 2000, except in this case there will also be PVC, netting and stakes left in the tidelands when growers walk away from unprofitable leases.

Tell DNR what you think here:

Contact DNR here:

CPL@dnr.wa.gov (Commissioner) or, 
aquaticleasing.shoreline@dnr.wa.gov