Dec 06 2006
Geoducks Get More Room
The News Tribune reported today that Taylor Shellfish is going to be able to add 3 acres to its existing homes for obese (and vaguely obscene) bivalves in Puget Sound.
Of course, as is always the case when bureaucrats become involved there are STIPULATIONS:
In his Nov. 30 decision on the Taylor permits, Pierce County deputy hearings examiner Terrence McCarthy attached a long list of provisions requiring Taylor to minimize the aesthetic and environmental impacts of the operation.
To comply, Taylor must post a bond, protect eelgrass and fledgling eagles, use certain colors and types of gear, mark tubes and nets for easy identification and keep the beaches free of debris, among other things.
Now, I readily admit that several of those points make complete and total sense to me, even though Geoducks have a reputation as total "neat-freaks" in Clam circles, they should keep the beach tidy.
I was somewhat taken aback by the requirement to protect Eelgrass. I was not aware that herds of Geoducks were known to graze on Eelgrass (or any other grass, for that matter), beyond the occasional peckish nip in between tides… Even more shocking was the revelation that Geoducks are known predators of fledgling eagles. They must, one assumes, use their elongated appendages to snatch the baby birds of prey as they fumble their way overhead, trying to learn the tricky business of being a raptor. You can just imagine a Geoduck tube darting into the air to snatch an eaglet down into its muddy burrow, with nothing left to mark its passing than a small cloud of lightly descending fluffy feathers, like a gecko snatching a fly.
Of course, not everyone was pleased with this permit being issued:
Sherilee Luedtke, who lives near another Taylor geoduck farm on Case Inlet, was more critical.
“Enforcement of all these conditions is going to be next to impossible. There’s no money anywhere for enforcement. It’s going to be up to citizens to get on a boat and go on patrol,” she said.
Cheers for Mrs. Ledtke! Without concerned waterborne citizens like her, who nows what mischief could be caused by the roving Geoduck herds that are destined to be roving the muck in Shelton, chewing on the Eelgrass, and preying on the birds of prey…
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Smartypants… This is my backyard, so here’s a few bits of trivia… Pardon me if I ramble…
Shellfish was big business in the early years of the South Puget Sound area, but it went to hell starting in the ’40’s due to pollution from logging, sawmilling, [using the bays to pond logs] the ITT Rayonnier pulp mill in Shelton, [built in 1914 and closed in stages between 1959 and 1974] and thousands of bad septics along the waterfront. It was shellfish growers, most notably Dave McMillin of the Olympia Oyster company, who used the then new environmental laws to force the cleanup.
In the meantime, pollution almost wiped out the native clams and oysters, which were inadvertantly replaced by hardier transplants accidentally brought in from overseas in ship bilges. The commercial species, Manila Clams and Pacific Oysters, aren’t native at all. The native oyster in the region is theOlympia Oyster, which is hands-down the finest eating bivalve on the planet. The native clams are mostly gone. The Olys were deliberately preserved because of their quality.
If you are curious, Taylor United has a nice website - but you’ll grow older than a grandpa geoduck loading it if you are stuck on dial-up, like me… Their main processing plant is a few miles south of Shelton, at a wide spot in highway 101 called… Taylor Towne… Whoda thunk it…
There are four real issues here; most of the complaints, like the eelgrass issue, are secondary - in the same sense Spotted Owls are secondary, being mostly grounds for action. The four issues are the views, the access, the noise and general disruption, and the "ownership" of the tidelands. Back in the early days of the settlement, a lot of people settled right on the water, and they weren’t too concerned about a little septic pollution or who actually owned the tidelands. Their lifestyles had a lot in common with the Amerinds who lived there the same way for a very long time.
Remember Judge Bolt? When you hear his name, you think salmon, but shellfish was affected by his rulings, too. After the infamous decision, local tribes started to assert rights over the shellfish on these small bays, and people were incensed to have commercial tribal diggers walking and digging on "their beaches." Taylor - I think but am not certain - leases quite a bit of "tribal" land, and I’m more certain buys brom tribal harvesters.
So between access / activity issues and the forced replacement of a lot of old septics with very expensive alternatives, the "original" owners and their descendents feel under siege - the whole thing became very confrontational.
Geoducks - my Alma Mater’s mascot - are a relative newcomer to the commercial industry. Wild geoducks are deep water critters mostly found well below the low tide line which are harvested by divers if they are harvested at all. Farming is the new wrinkle.
It’s all turned into a very big business for my little town. I’ve dug clams commercially - the best money I ever made, measured by the hour, was digging clams, where I sometimes exceeded $60 an hour.
So you see there is a lot going on here. I was in the field doing environmental related work for the State over the summer, and I spent a lot of time on Key peninsula. There were signs all over the place exorting people to oppose these permits. A lot of them were placed by the the Henderson Bay Shoreline Association mentioned in the article.
So… Eelgrass - mostly below the tide line - is theoretically threatened by harvesters just working the area, as are other tidal critters, or so it is argued. Eagles - those filthy thievin’ scavengers - are generally threatened by too much activity. On top of that, people object to the noise and some think the farms are just plain ugly. But what is really threatened is a lifestyle that’s vanishing. Everything is changing - the Gig Harbor and Key peninsulas are turning into ‘burbs for Tacoma - the growth there is incredible.
Geoducks themselves don’t threaten anything. They just sit in the sand and filter plankton.
It all comes down to competing visions. A shellfish industry doesn’t matter much to the brand-new newcomers, I think, but the born there types and people who moved outt here because the area was "pristine" see it as one more sign of their doom. They are going down fighting, and they will fight with any weapon that comes to hand. Hence, as the article states:
"Reaction among opponents was mixed.
“We’re pretty pleased. We pretty much got what we wanted,” said Laurie Brauneis, a Lakebay resident and leader of Save Our Shoreline. “The bond, that’s pretty remarkable. We’ve never had anything like that.”
“We would like to see a moratorium on all permits, but we recognize the reality,” said Stan Cummings, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Bay.
Sherilee Luedtke, who lives near another Taylor geoduck farm on Case Inlet, was more critical.
“Enforcement of all these conditions is going to be next to impossible. There’s no money anywhere for enforcement. It’s going to be up to citizens to get on a boat and go on patrol,” she said."