12/19 Skagit Valley Herald – A farmer-to-farmer approach to cleaning up Samish Bay
by Whitney Pipkin
Bill Dewey, spokesman for Taylor Shellfish Farms, has a calendar that charts the number of days Taylor and other growers in the Samish Bay couldn’t harvest because of the presence of fecal coliform, an indicator of harmful bacteria known to cause illness in humans. Too much fecal coliform prohibit growers from harvesting their oysters and clams, some of which have grown up to a year beyond the ideal market size as they wait to be gathered.
The closures add up to more than 70 days so far this year, not including days the bay has been closed due to naturally-occurring organisms that make shellfish unsafe to eat. The bay reopened to harvest yesterday after being closed for 10 days following heavy rains, which wash higher levels of bacteria from the watershed into the bay.
Dewey showed his chart to a group of terrestrial farmers he invited down to Taylor’s Bow facility in early November for a farmer-to-farmer discussion. He hoped the meeting would “take the temp down” in the farming community after many of the livestock farmers had received mandates from the state Department of Ecology intended to help shellfish farmers in the bay.
More at
http://www.goskagit.com/home/article/a_farmer_to_farmer_approach_to_cleaning_up_samish_bay/