The largest producer of farmed shellfish in the United States, Taylor Shellfish Farms, recently began the permitting process to establish a 30-acre geoduck farm in Dungeness Bay.
Although the world renown shellfish farm includes 11,000 acres of tidelands along the Washington coast and British Columbia, with numerous farms around the Puget Sound, the proposed geoduck farm would be the first shellfish farm operated by the company in Clallam County.
“We have a pretty robust permitting and review process, but would love to start farming as soon as possible,” Diani Taylor, fifth generation farmer for Taylor Shellfish Farms, said.
Although Taylor said they’ve been working toward a potential geoduck farm in Dungeness Bay for a while now, farm installation is not anticipated until spring, according to the Washington State Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Application (JARPA).
The 350 acres Taylor Shellfish officials are prepared to lease once the permitting process is complete is privately owned property known as Dungeness Farms. Taylor Shellfish officials plan to stagger their planting within 0.5- to 5-acre parcels in any given year. At full build-out geoducks are planned to inhabit up to 30 acres of a nearly 98-acre project area.
“We have a planting cycle, but it’s farming … you can plan all you want, but that doesn’t mean it will always go to plan,” Taylor said.
Management practices
In preparation, officials with Taylor Shellfish worked with independent consulting staff at Confluence Environmental Company to conduct a geoduck aquaculture biological evaluation of the area in September.
The evaluation helps to document the area’s unique characteristics, such as the 17-acre eelgrass bed within the project area, and create farming practices specific to the area.
Because of Dungeness Bay’s “dynamic nature” Taylor Shellfish officials plan to use a plot siting and adaptive management plan to help manage the farm in a way it won’t negatively interact with things such as eelgrass beds, according to the company’s geoduck plot siting and adaptive management plan overview.
“Certainly, wherever we are we want to be profitable,” Taylor said. “Because we can’t farm when the water quality is downgraded, the health of the surrounding ecosystem is important to us.”
Since geoducks can take anywhere from four to seven years to reach marketable size (about two pounds), protective netting is used as well as PVC pipe or a variation of culture tubes until the juvenile geoducks have matured for about two years.
Because geoducks are considered a “delicacy” and there is limited habitat for farming them, the price for geoducks often is driven up by the market, Taylor said.
Although it fluctuates, geoducks currently are being sold at $30 per pound through Taylor Shellfish Farms.
Once geoducks reach harvestable size, they’re removed using a hydraulic wand during low tide or at high tide by divers. Eventually, Taylor said, the company expects to create about 15-30 jobs within the county.
“If it works (the geoduck farm), I think it could be a good thing,” Dave Croonquist, secretary for the North Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the Puget Sound Anglers, said.
As a retired game warden and active on a number of committees and advisory boards, including WDFW’s Puget Sound Recreational Fisheries Enhancement Fund Oversight Committee and North Olympic Peninsula Coastal Conservation Association, Croonquist is familiar with local sports fishing activities within the area. Dungeness Bay gets little pressure from sports fishermen because it is fairly shallow, he said, and thus doesn’t predict a conflict of interest with the onset of a geoduck farm.
“Common sense and good science are going to make the difference, but properly run it’s a win for everyone,” Croonquist said.
Location
Dungeness Bay doesn’t need much, if any, preparation, Taylor said. The lack of alteration to the natural environment was one of the driving forces behind Taylor Shellfish officials’ desire to explore the area as a possible site for aquaculture.
“We found it to be perfect for geoduck,” Taylor said. “Geoduck need suitable habitat and that tends to be flat, sandy beaches like at Dungeness Bay.”
Except for passive recreation, possible wild harvest of oysters and clams by the property owners and ongoing restoration work in areas surrounding the project site, the property neighbors the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.
“The lease is for about 350 acres so we’re really only planning to farm less than 10 percent of that and feel there is enough space for everyone,” Taylor said. “We want to work with the community and not limit people’s recreational opportunities. We consider it really important that we become a part of the community where we’re at.”
Historically the area was used for shellfish farming, Taylor said, but because of the degraded status of the bay by the Washington State Department of Health, a shellfish protection area was implemented and the bay has since reached a quality suitable for farming.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe once had an oyster farm within Dungeness Bay, but because of reoccurring closures the farm wasn’t economically viable, Kelly Toy, shellfish management program manager for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, said. To assist with bettering the bay’s water quality the tribe worked closely with the DOH to identify pollution sources contributing its degraded state.
“Aquaculture farms need good water quality,” Toy said. “They’re a good voice for an area. We know all about the project and don’t have a problem with it.”
The tribe has a geoduck farm in Sequim Bay and with thorough management practices, Toy said, geoduck farms can provide ecosystem services such as providing refuge for juvenile salmon and a variety of prey species. Additionally, geoducks are filter feeders and can improve water quality.
Concerns
Despite potential for positive ramifications, such as habitat creation for certain species, increased water filtration and job creation, Anne Shaffer, Coastal Watershed Institute executive director and marine biologist, is concerned with Taylor Shellfish officials’ proposal for the geoduck farm in Dungeness Bay.
“We need to ask and answer the questions to determine whether this is really the right place for this size operation,” Shaffer said. “It’s fascinating that this is being proposed along a shoreline that has been the site of literally millions of dollars for restoration work.”
Among Shaffer’s concerns are the possible negative effects the farm could have on eelgrass beds, surf smelt and sand lance spawning habitat and the neighboring Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, which is “critical” habitat for winter migrating water fowl, she said.
“We are concerned with the shear volume of the farm, the plastics and material used in farming, the uplands, vanishing wildlife and the overall wild nature of the county’s shorelines,” Shaffer said.
Citizen representative for the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, Laura Hendricks, “can’t believe anyone would apply aquaculture in this location.”
The coalition Hendricks represents has been involved with geoduck aquaculture for about eight years, she said, and was active in getting the Washington Sea Grant, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded marine research and education organization based at the University of Washington to perform a six-year research program on geoduck aquaculture.
“Our main concern is the expansion of shellfish aquaculture into natural habitats,” Hendricks said. “They (Taylor Shellfish) plan to put in around 40,000 tubes per acre – such a large, intensive and beach altering activity shouldn’t even be considered at a pristine place like Dungeness Bay.”
In addition to the wide array of species that have been documented within Dungeness Bay, the area experiences high winds, Hendricks said, and with the amount of plastics used in geoduck farming, she anticipates increased pollution to to be a result of the farm.
Hendricks said the coalition has long been pushing for some type of marine zoning.
“We’re not saying don’t do aquaculture, but there needs to be limits to the expansion of industrial aquaculture,” she said.
To minimize potential side effects of the geoduck farm, Taylor Shellfish officials have various management practices to avoid any anticipated negative concerns. Examples of such practices include 16-foot buffers from the eelgrass and kelp beds, no seeding of culture conducted in eelgrass or other biological sensitive areas, ongoing monitoring of surrounding environment and better adapting their farming procedures, regular patrolling of surrounding area to retrieve any debris and conduct harvest activities during tides where the least amount of turbidity will occur.
“There will be no net negative impacts,” according to the company’s permit application. “Shellfish harvest may result in local and temporary effects, but not long-term effects.”
However, Hendricks foresees lasting effects anytime a species, of any kind, is planted in such high densities.
Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.
