This was a comment posted on our last blog entry. It’s by landowner/beachowner Katherine Knight. I thought it worth a post of its own. Well worth a read. Katherine lives directly adjacent to a geoduck farm.
“Do the citizens of this state want massive areas of our salt water beaches to become slick brown mud flats for the future while a small number of people (and the State) bring an end to the natural salt water beaches (fish nurseries) being rapidly destroyed.?
I live on a small estuary (Zangle Cove) north of Olympia. This is an estuary that used to be rich in crabs. Both the estuary and the open bay called Dana Passage. WDFW allowed the crabs to be totally “fished out” about 5 years ago. Now no crab….not even an allowed limited number of pots.
Our sand and gravel beach is now totally devoid of little necks, butter clams…….or any other species of shell fish. Not even the sand dollars, moon shells or cockles my children found a very few years ago back to the 1950s The ecology of the shore has changed. Now one only finds grayish broken shells from some years ago. I live directly adjacent to a geoduck farm. All tides circle over this mud patch.
Our adjacent neighbors on a Cove fought the County and the Hearing Examiner but……money wins and we did no have enough to continue the legal fight against this commercial monster nearly at our front yard. At low tide it IS our front yard.
We shoreline homeowners paid for the sewer system about 25 years ago (or more) to have our land and beaches clean on the shore and adjacent waters. We created the great climate for kayakers, other boaters, swimmers and citizen users. The commercial (shellfish) dealers took advantage of our generosity in providing a clean estuary and beach on a smallish cove.
I am not a writer to discuss the science but I know no agency will come to do some research. I just express my shock and anger about what the commercial shellfish industry does to people who in our area who pay the highest taxes, pay for a …sewer system, and then are dissed at the hearings which we try to get attention to the damage these farms do to the local, regional areas which are adjacent to the commercial farms. From effecting a small area, eventually it impacts the larger land. By the time anyone gets wise, it will take years for restoration if that happens at all.”
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: geoduck, Puget Sound, Zangle Cove |
I’m troubled by this as well. Given the number of agencies involved, it’s frustratingly difficult to see the larger picture clearly. According to the WSDA, “in 2018, Washington shellfish exports totaled $131 million. The primary export markets were Hong Kong, China, and Canada. Fresh/live geoduck made up about 80 percent of all shellfish exports in 2018.” But where can we find more granular information about numbers, types, operations, and longevity of Washington’s shellfish farms?
Here are a few resources to learn more about shellfish: DNR Aquaculture – https://www.dnr.wa.gov/programs-and-services/aquatics/shellfish/geoduck-aquaculture, WA Shellfish Trail -https://www.shellfishtrail.org/farms, WA Dept of Health shellfish safety map-https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/biotoxin/biotoxin. Taylor Shellfish is the largest shellfish farmer in WA (and the US), plus Tulalip Tribes, Chelsea Farms each having their own website/locations.
Thank you for sharing this information. This is blowing my mind.