PORT TOWNSEND — A Lake Leland veterinarian is lobbying Jefferson County commissioners to allow finfish aquaculture in the county’s proposed shoreline master program update, but it appears that two of the three commissioners prefer an outright prohibition with future consideration possible.
“This is something that we have to recognize,” said John Pitts, a former state aquaculture director and Jefferson County commissioner during the 1980s.
“The fastest growing agricultural products today are aquaculture.
“It is caused by the decline of the world’s fish population, and we are no longer going to be able to create the kinds of fish food that we need,” Pitts said.
“Frankly, I think that we are going into another world in how we feed our people.”
Pitts has forwarded a letter and facts about finfish aquaculture to inform the commissioners.
While Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, has argued to keep the door open on net-pen finfish farming, saying the loss of wild stocks is adding pressure to grow fish, fellow Commissioners Phil Johnson, D-Port Townsend, and David Sullivan, D-Port Townsend, said they prefer a ban on the practice in the county right now, which has no such restrictions on shellfish aquaculture.
“Right now, we are making a lot of ground to restore [wild] salmon [populations],” Sullivan said Monday during a briefing with Department of Community Development staff on the proposed shoreline master program update.
“I think I’m ready to go with an outright prohibition on net-pen aquaculture.”
Johnson said he believes the door is being left partially open to finfish aquaculture in the future.
Austin, who recognized he was the one-vote minority of the three commissioners, suggested the county be open to fish farming but leave future considerations up to the Department of Community Development staff or the county hearing examiner.
Outside pressure
Other pressure to allow finfish aquaculture came from Seattle attorney Richard M. Elliott, representing the Washington Fish Growers Association, a trade association founded in 1987 of 29 dedicated to aquaculture and fish farming.
“WFGA urges Jefferson County to adopt aquaculture provisions allowing currently economically feasible net-pen aquaculture as a conditional use in certain environment designations,” Elliott wrote in an Oct. 14 letter to the county commissioners.
Elliott stated that versions of the shoreline master program containing a countywide prohibition on finfish aquaculture is “contrary to Jefferson County’s stated policy declaring aquaculture as a preferred, water-dependent use of regional and statewide interests that is important to the long-term economic viability, cultural heritage and environmental health of Jefferson County.”
Pitts said he has been an expert witness in seven different court cases involving salmon farms and net pens.
“Every verdict found in favor of net pens,” he said.
Parasite past
Port Townsend Bay might not be the right place to raise fish in pens, he said, after two fish pen farms moved out of the county when parasites infected the fish off the shores of Port Townsend and Port Hadlock, causing stunted growth and other malformations to the fish raised.
Hood Canal has a problem with low oxygen and lack of currents, he said, but the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca present the best conditions.
The only Atlantic salmon-raising pens on the North Olympic Peninsula can be found in Port Angeles Harbor.
Pitts said concerns about antibiotics used to prevent disease in farmed fish were unfounded.
The commissioners directed Community Development Department staffers to come up with a revision by Thursday for their consideration next Monday.
Master draft
The commissioners, once they approve the shoreline master program draft, will forward it to the state Department of Ecology for the final review and adoption process.
Ecology will also open a comment period and public hearing. Final adoption is anticipated for sometime in mid to late 2010.
The shoreline master program is intended to maintain existing shoreline resources, foster shoreline recovery over time and to balance use and protection.
Jefferson County is required to update its program in compliance with the state’s 1971 Shoreline Management Act and the 2003 Shoreline Master Program Guidelines.
All jurisdictions in the state must update their shoreline master programs by 2014.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
