PORT TOWNSEND — Port commissioners on Wednesday backed a letter to the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group in support of Coast Seafoods Co.’s worry that a Quilcene Bay restoration project could be hazardous to their shellfish seed operation.
Following a Port of Port Townsend Executive Director Larry Crockett’s recommendation, the commissioners directed Crockett to express support for Coast, a Port tenant at Herb Beck Marina and Industrial Park on Quilcene Bay.
During the commissioners’ regular meeting at the Point Hudson Hospital Building conference room, Crockett said he spoke with Neil Werner, Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group executive director on Tuesday, and “he was very receptive.”
Near Coast Seafoods
Werner was expected to send the Port an information packet on the latest phase of the 10-year-old Quilcene Bay salmon habitat restoration project, part of which is about a half-mile from the seven-acre Port property on which Coast Seafoods is located.
“We’re all in favor of improving habitat,” Crockett said, adding that the Port invested $300,000 toward Coast Seafood’s expansion.
Coast is the largest oyster seed operation in the world.
The hatchery, which supplies shellfish growers in Washington, Oregon and California, plus British Columbia and elsewhere internationally, has been in the process of expanding its Quilcene facilities to serve the Gulf Coast region, where hurricanes have destroyed oyster-growing operations.
Coast Seafood’s hatchery manager, Greg Coates, on Tuesday voiced concerns about the latest $2.5 million salmon habitat restoration project and its nearness to the hatchery.
“We’re not against the project,” Coates said.
“We just want to make sure it’s done right. We want to be prepared.”
