|
Our beaches are full of a diverse ecosystem that has taken millions of years to develop. This is a bed of sand dollars that is on a site that was proposed for a geoduck farm. These, along with rocks or any other obstructions would be "removed" to plant the tubes. Basically, they clear the beach. Things you can't see, horse clams, wild geoduck, crab, mussels, tube worms and other clams would be a bycatch of the harvest. |
|
|
|
The first picture here is geoduck harvesters in a line. We were told they go "shoulder to shoulder" down the beach, liqufying the beach 3-4 feet down. The fellow at the top is doing just that. To the side you can see how muddy the water gets near the site of harvest. How long do the fine particles stay in the water? This can harm eelgrass, and other salmon habitat. How far do these silt plumes travel? Do they bury other creatures or eggs in the near shore habitat? We were told this was the third sweep of the beach for the season. The homeowner nearby told us that they returned several times after that. Harvest happens every 5-7 years. What other effects does this repeated "liquifying" have on the shore? |
|
|
|
Harvesters use a small barge that houses the pumps that run the jets. The large hoses that you see on top run from this barge to the harvest site. There was only one pump barge this day, and you can see how the hoses are not coming directly from the barge to the site. This is probably because the barge is anchored and the harvester moves along the beach. Commonly in Puget Sound, fragile eelgrass is found in this region. No doubt it would be damaged or pulled up by this practice. |
|
The Seattle PI reports in an article "Cashing in on Geoducks" regarding the harvest, "...beach will have been turned upside down--a moonscape yielding hundreds of pounds of high-grade geoducks and a bycatch of any worm or clam that was living in the sand." The harvest liquefies the sand 3 feet down using water jets that can pump 50 gallons a minute. Pictured here is some of the bycatch - horse clams. |
|
See the tube worms sticking up out of the sand? These would also be subject to the harvest. Herring use these tubes to attach their eggs to. Herring are a food source for salmon, and these tubes could be destroyed by the geoduck harvest.
|
To the right is a picture of a cross section of beach. See the black layer? This is a naturally occuring layer containing compounds of iron. There are also aerobic and anaerobic layers. The top or aerobic layer has organisms that need the presence of oxygen. Below this layer, conditions are anaerobic, and energy releasing life processes involve various chemical pathways that do not require free oxygen. Geoducks, use siphons to access the top layers. With a harvest that has the beach "turned upside down" how does it effect this balance? |
|
|
The harvest throws mud and silt into the water column. How long does this mud stay supended in the intertidal waters, with a more percussive wave action? There is no environmental impact study that addresses this.
These are pictures of eelgrass. It is covered by the water as in the first picture except at very low tides as in the second. (Notice the fish in the lower right hand corner of the first picture.) Eelgrass is essential for salmon habitat. It shelters juvenile salmon on their way to the ocean, and houses the food that they eat. In order for eelgrass to live, it needs light. Muddy water as seen in the previous pictures starves it of light and it cannot survive.
|
This is a 4 inch in diameter plastic PVC pipe. They have planted 4 geoducks in each tube. The tubes are 1 foot on center, and in a 5 acre area that is a quarter of a million tubes. Geoduck naturally occurs from approximately a -2 tide down into subtidal areas. Geoduck farmers are planting from a +3 tide down. The difference could be about 600 feet where they do not naturally occur. This is the nearshore area, and could create a monoculture or juvenile populations where many species and ages previously lived. |
The shellfish companies say that the beach topography returns to it's former state within 2 tide cycles, but what about the 3 feet down they disturbed that took thousands of years to get that way? These farming techniques are new and there have been no comprehensive studies on how they effect the environment. We need to know how if effects the near shore environment. What kind of damage it is doing to the habitat of Puget Sound?
These are predator exclusion nets. To the right is an immature bald eagle that was trapped by one. We wonder how much these nets exclude native birds from their natural feeding grounds.
|
|
Home Page |
Planting to Harvest |
Community Concerns |
Hazards |
About us |
Contact |
How to Help |