HomeMy WebLinkAbout021224 ShIne neighbors claims from Gordon King re: SMP �(1totirc yurievr
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I am following with concern your deliberations on updating the SMP.
You seem to be showing deference to Shine neighbors' claims of the negative impacts of
geoduck farming and that attitude is spreading to other types of shellfish aquaculture.
Please again read and consider the submitted geoduck farming impact research papers by
Glen VanBlaricom and others. These papers provide a scientific, research based,
assessment of geoduck culture impacts and then compare this information with the
implausible inaccurate claims from the waterfront property owners such as:
• A decline in marble murrelets.
• A decline in resident orcas
• A decline in forage fish
• A decline in salmon populations
I am sure that you are aware that geoduck aquaculture was practically nonexistent 25 years
ago unlike the above list of disturbing marine ecological declines.
What science does tell us is that waterfront property development with the clearing of trees
and vegetation to the waterline, roads and driveways to the waterline, bulkheads to protect
houses, roads with their associated runoff of tire and brake pad pollution let alone the
fertilizers and selective herbicides that people apply to their lawns have been and continue
to directly or indirectly damage all of these species.
All these environmentally damaging problems exist in the Shine neighborhood.
Be very clear if these people had a real concern for the marine ecology of Jefferson County
they wouldn't be living in the nearshore. Their real concern is that they have to see farming
in their marine viewshed.
I ask the commissioners to look at a google aerial view of the Shine area and see how
development has encroached on the nearshore.
Taylor Shellfish along with dozens of other farmers grow oysters, geoduck, clams and
mussels in Totten Inlet in the South Sound. Shellfish aquaculture in this inlet supports
dozens of families as it has for over 130 years,yet Kennedy Creek at its southern end has
one of the healthiest salmon runs in the South Sound.
I ask that the commissioners follow WDOE's initial SMP update direction and decrease the
number of CUP's and that the commissioner follow the science not inaccurate claims
about aquaculture. Making it even more difficult and expensive to get a farming permit will
block many young industrious people's access to the industry. We need jobs and young
people in this county.