NORDLAND — The Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes say that federal, state and county government representatives involved in the protection of Marrowstone Island’s Mystery Bay have forsaken the enforcement needed to protect tribal shellfish beds in the bay, a direct threat to their treaty rights.
“Instead of moving in the right direction since 2000, the state, county and federal governments have completely failed to take any meaningful action to enforce the laws for which they have authority and protect tribal treaty rights from violation,” said a recent letter from the Point No Point Treaty Council, made up of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe of Blyn and the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe to a variety of agencies.
Both tribes have commercial shellfish harvesting beds in Mystery Bay and from Hood Canal west into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The state Department of Health is considering reclassifying the Mystery Bay commercial shellfish growing area as “prohibited” or “conditional.”
No pollution has been pinpointed, but the number of boats moored in the bay poses a potential hazard through the risk of discharges that could affect human health through contamination of shellfish, authorities said.
Open house Monday
An public open house on the management of Mystery Bay for a broad spectrum of public benefits is scheduled at Fort Flagler State Park Recreation Hall, inside the Marrowstone Island park north of Nordland via Flagler Road, at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan, county Water Quality Manager Neil Harrington and state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Jane Chavey said last week they are optimistic that the meeting will lead to an interim plan to protect commercial shellfish beds in Mystery Bay.
State Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim — who represents the 24th District, which covers Jefferson, Clallam and part of Grays Harbor counties — is expected to attend the Monday meeting, which is a collaboration of the state Department of Health, Jefferson County Department of Community Development, DNR, State Parks and Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association.
The tribes’ May 21 letter said that, in 2000, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife accounted for 52 mooring buoys in the bay, 41 with state permits and 11 without.
‘Situation worse’
“Nine years later, the situation has not ameliorated, and in fact, has gotten worse,” the letter said, noting that the Department of Health counted 73 boats in the bay during boating season, 10 of which were moored near shellfish beds.
“It’s a very troubling when any of the areas in Puget Sound, any of them within our usual accustomed fishing grounds, is in danger of being decertified for harvest of shellfish,” said Ron Charles, Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal chairman.
Charles said the rising number of boats moored in the bay was brought to the tribes’ attention by one of their main buyers, Marrowstone Island Shellfish Company, owned by the Johnson family in Nordland on the shore of Mystery Bay. The business is managed by Jake Johnson, son of longtime Jefferson County commercial shellfish businessman Carl Johnson.
“They have long bought product from our tribal members, and we are real sympathetic to his situation there because this would put him basically out of business and that would hurt the tribe,” Charles said.
Charles said closure of the bay would set a dangerous precedent.
“Historically, when that happens, it never reverses itself,” he said.
He feels closure could be prevented if government agencies would limit the number of buoys and boats moored in the bay.
‘Threatened list’
Mystery Bay remains on the state Department of Health’s “threatened” list for 2009 –which includes 16 other Western Washington harvest areas.
Bob Woolrich, manager of Growing Area Section in the Office of Shellfish and Water Protection, said the problem may be resolved this year, with the county’s help.
County Commissioner Sullivan on Friday said the county staff is working closely with all parties.
“I’m pretty optimistic we are going to be able to work something out,” Sullivan said. “There has always been good water quality there.”
Sullivan called it a DNR matter.
“They own the bottom,” Sullivan said. “We only permit the buoys.”
The Jefferson County Department of Community Development has conducted a survey in the past year that shows 63 buoys have been identified with owners. The county said that 25 have legal permits, seven are “grandfathered,” meaning they were in the bay before regulations existed, and five have been determined to be moored outside the bay.
Said DNR’s Chavy: “We respect the tribes and certainly want to ensure that their treaty rights are not violated.”
Chavey said DNR also wants to accommodate adjacent landowners with free buoys, manage selling moorage licenses on the bay for those who do not live there, establish moorage leases with commercial shellfish operators and also take Fort Flagler State Park into consideration.
“In the short term, we want to bring people together and resolve the situation,” she said.
“We are looking for creative solutions so we can have an appropriate number of vessels in the bay.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
