Media
All videos and photographs are from Puget Sound.
Videos
Aquaculture on a Puget Sound shoreline. No audio.
Brief samples of geoduck farm activity around South Puget Sound at low tide. There is no audio.
Dr. Jennifer Ruesink, professor of biology, University of Washington – Geoduck clam aquaculture as press and pulse perturbations to eelgrass.
KIRO-TV report on Gray Whale in Burley Lagoon. These bottom feeding baleen whales are not uncommon in Puget Sound.
Excerpt from Dirty Jobs – Geoduck Farming
CTV News report – spawning herring caught in aquaculture netting
“Wet harvesting” footage
Photographs
It’s hard to overstate the quantity of PVC plastic introduced into the shoreline ecosystem by industrial geoduck operations. 40,000+ pipes per acre is not uncommon.
Another good look at the ever expanding geoduck fields of south Puget Sound.
The continuing expansion of industrial aquaculture was very evident when we toured the regional inlets at the lowest tide of 2013 – June 23.
Unbridled industrial aquaculture has grown and grown over the past few decades. In some of our regional inlets, there are few patches left uncultivated.
Small nets are placed over each PVC tube, with much larger nets covering the entire field. The industry claims zero impact from all these toxic materials. We beg to differ.
It doesn’t seem reasonable to assume that all this PVC, nylon netting, and other plastics would not negatively impact the ecosystem, or that the producers will be able to completely clean and restore all sites.
Is this really how we want the increasing majority of our tidelands to be?
Geoduck harvesting requires large quantities of water under pressure to liquefy the tideland and expose the geoducks. The churning of large quantities of silt is dramatic.
Here’s a good look at how much water is needed to liquify the tideland for geoduck harvesting.
Any native species that have managed to coexist with the geoduck farm up to this point are surely destroyed by the harvest methods.
Geoduck harvesting
Geoduck harvesting can result in severe local sediment disruption
Closer view of intertidal geoduck harvesting
The intertidal region appears devoid of life after geoduck harvest
A typical storm in Puget Sound can dislodge plastic tubes, nets and other aquaculture gear
Intensive industrial aquaculture results in cumulative impacts to our priceless ecosystem, and government has yet to respond
Aquaculture debris creates significant hazards to citizens who wish to enjoy our common resources
The industry insists that their industrial aquaculture practices result in “no net loss” to the region’s ecosystem. Tell that to our friend here.
Another example of the impact of unbridled industrial aquaculture on the natural beauty of Puget Sound.
