Representatives Van de Wege and others put forward a House Bill (1599) to allow counties to prohibit net pen aquaculture in their Shoreline Master Programs (SMPs). Currently, there is no provision to allow an outright ban. I assume that this is in response to our county commissioners being stalled for months by the Department of Ecology’s refusal to allow pens to be prohibited by county governments. It now needs a Senate companion bill, and time will tell how much opposition this runs into by the industry. We will continue to track this bill in the coming months.