Court Date for Eelgrass in Puget Sound

Eelgrass In Zangle Cove, 2008

The Pierce County Detienne geoduck aquaculture farm permit was denied by the Shoreline Hearings Board. Tomorrow (4/3/15) the appeal to that ruling will be heard in Superior Court. This is an important case because it is about eelgrass.

There are two big pushes in Puget Sound: 1) restoration of Puget Sound including restoration of eelgrass, because eelgrass is a primary habitat for marine life, and 2) expansion of shellfish aquaculture with an emphasis on industrial geoduck aquaculture. Eelgrass has largely been "run out of town" by shoreline uses and especially by shoreline aquaculture. And if the industry defends itself saying that shoreline armoring has been the cause of all the problems, then they have to concede that they are dealing the death blow with geoduck aquaculture on the tidelands. There is virtually no eelgrass left in South Puget Sound, with the exception of Zangle Cove.

These two goals are on a collision course and the shellfish industry will do everything it can to get the legal system to acquiesce to its contentions about geoduck farming and eelgrass. Anybody with eyes to see knows that the facts speak for themselves--geoduck farming will severely stress eelgrass, if not eliminate it.

Permit Application for Sohn Industrial Geoduck Farm Now Published

This photo is of the Hammond geoduck farm, run by Allen Shellfish, just around the bend from us. 

One of the biggest concerns is the cummulative impacts of industrial geoduck farms that take more and more of the tideland. 90% of Totten Inlet tidelands now contain shellfish aquaculture, primarily industrial geoduck aquaculture.

Thurston County published the Notice of Application for the Sohn industrial geoduck farm on Zangle Cove on 3/12/15. We received a copy in the mail today. April 1, 2015 is the deadline for comment. 

Send comments to: Tony Kantas , Cindy Wilson , davisj@co.thurston.wa.us, murphyb@co.thurston.wa.us, kainm@co.thurston.wa.us, osbornc@co.thurston.wa.us, mccorms@co.thurston.wa.us, "Sanguinetti, Pamela NWS"

Our Lovely Geoducks

Other than a great deal of money for the shellfish industry, what are we filling up our tidelands with plastics and liquefying our beaches for?

Geoducks are air-freighted to elite markets in China and Hong Kong because geoduck are considered to be an aphrodisiac. We are not feeding the poor and the hungry. The shellfish industry, with the blessing of the Puget Sound Partnership, is ruining our tidelands in order to exploit virility fantasies.

See article by Dr. Liesa Harte, MD titled Aprodisiacs Part I.

Industrial Geoduck Farming DOES Impact the Tidelands

Totten Inlet Geoduck Farm.

This photo along with hundreds of other photos of geoduck farms tells the story--that the claim perpetuated by the shellfish industry, even in legal documents, that geoduck farms do not seriously impact the tidelands, is a falsehood. A fragile sea anemone colony, for example would be trampled and unlikely to re-establish. There is a chain of life on the tideland that is simply destroyed.

Science Related to Geoduck Aquaculture

Industrial geoduck aquaculture on Totten Inlet, 2006

We have known for a long time that one of the issues related to industrial geoduck farming on Puget Sound tidelands is related to "regulatory capture" by the industry and the money spent on lawyers and lobbying along with multitudes of "consultants." There is a great deal that can be said about this, but let us start by reading one of the decisions regarding an appeal and the granting of the permit by Thurston County in 2010.

http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/permitting/hearing/agenda-staff-report/shellfish-hearing/exhibits/2010100420.decision-on-reconsideration.thiesen.pdf

See page 37. The hearing examiner sates that:

"The peer reviewed scientific studies and articles offered in opposition to the proposal appear to be based in sound scientific methods and their results, and results of further studies on the same topics, would be appropriately considered in review of individual geoduck farm applications. However the weight of scientific evidence in favor of the project is found to be greater..."

If one study says "good" and the other study says "bad", does the Hearing Examiner have the scientific credentials to declare for one and trash the other? If several studies say "good" and only one study says "bad", even if the latter is based on "sound scientific methods," is the fact that there are more "good" than "bad" mean that "good" wins?

Did the Hearings Examiner actually read the studies or was she just saying 5 studies are obviously more conclusive than one?  Is this really related to "science"?

Protect Great Blue Heron Family in Zangle Cove

"Five on a Log", Zangle Cove

Great Blue Heron are solitary birds and it is rare to see more than one. But this is a new family, with the parents on either end of the log and the hatchlings in the center. We want to protect the Great Blue Heron who feed directly in the area of the proposed industrial geoduck farm in Zangle Cove

Please sign our Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat petition to Governor Jay Inslee and our Washington State Legislators.

We want Gov. Inslee to know that the whole world is watching and that he can't hide from the truth about this destructive industry. We are trading our precious tidelands, home to many native species, for some rich guy's aphrodisiacal fantasies and satisfied belly in China. It is unthinkable.

Juvenile Bald Eagle Caught in Geoduck Net

These fishermen are attempting to rescue a juvenile Bald Eagle from a geoduck net on Harstene Island in 2006. This is what is coming to Zangle Cove. We have a resident Bald Eagle family that has lived on Zangle Cove for as long as most can remember. The Bald Eagles have been photographed fishing on the tideland in the exact location of the proposed geoduck farm in Zangle Cove. The description of the project includes the use of these nets and 43,500 tubes per acre of tideland.

Please send your objections to the operation to Thurston County Planner Tony Kantas", Email: kantast@co.thurston.wa.us.

Zangle Cove

"Zangle Cove", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board, by Kathryn Townsend

What could be more beautiful to paint? This lovely cove in South Puget Sound is now the target of a proposed industrial geoduck farm. Protect Zangle Cove is comprised of many neighbors and property owners, some who have lived here for more than 30 years and are now working to protect this Cove.

Our site is dedicated to the prevention of industrial ventures on the tidelands. We cannot even cut a tree on our shoreline property without a permit, yet the counties are permitting industrial geoduck activities on these pristine tideland with hardly a thought as to its impacts on the tideland itself and on all the native species who call this home, including the human species. This tideland in particular is the exact feeding ground of long-time families of Bald Eagles and Great Blue Heron as well as fragile anemonie, starfish and native geoducks, some which could be as old as 160 year. They too, will go the way of the aphrodisiac luxury dinner in China--they are OUR native geoducks.