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:

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

 Permit Hearing: 1 p.m. August 9 at 411 N. 5th Street in Shelton

Floating Oyster Farm Hearing in Mason County's Oakland Bay, WA
50 acres of navigable water and tidelands is needed for a 9 acre floating oyster farm.
August 9 a permit hearing on a proposal by Taylor Shellfish to create a 9 acre floating oyster farm requiring a 50 acre lease in south Puget Sound's Oakland Bay will occur. While presented as "only" 9 acres, Taylor Shellfish has said due to drifting of the structure, lines and anchors, a 50 acre area of public subtidal tidelands and navigable waters is required.
To date, 49 comments have been received with 43 of those being opposed. Impacts to native marine life, the public's use of navigable waters, and plastic pollution are only a few of the concerns expressed.
On Mason County's web site, Taylor's response to those comments has been a litany of past studies used to support a variety of industrial shellfish farms, dismissal of others as not being important (e.g., Friends of Burley Lagoon don't know anything about Oakland Bay, so their concerns are not relevant), and the belief that giving access to 16 acres tidelands in other parts of Oakland Bay, only exposed during a small portion of the day, is sufficient mitigation to offset the loss of the 50 acres of navigable waters Taylor needs.
[See Mason County's web site and permit documents here: https://masoncountywa.gov/hear.../Taylor-Shellfish/index.php ]
In addition to attending in person, the hearing will also be available on Mason WebTV.
[Find Mason WebTV here: https://masonwebtv.com/ ]
Through a series of delays, Taylor Shellfish has had ample opportunity to review concerns submitted and develop what they feel are sufficient responses to them. Coupled with time spent developing shoreline regulations which are favorable to industrial shellfish farm development, citizens who are concerned have an uphill climb.


Posted by Protect Our Shoreline at 2:50 PM
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