QUILCENE — Representatives of Coast Seafood Co.’s Quilcene Bay shellfish hatchery want answers and assurances before a $2.5 million fish habitat restoration project gets under way near the largest oyster seed operation in the world.
Any possible variations in water chemistry that the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s restoration project could cause in Quilcene Bay is the issue, hatchery representatives said.
Although the salmon enhancement group’s creek restoration work has been conducted in bits and pieces over the past 10 years upstream of the bay, Coast Seafood’s hatchery manager, Greg Coates, voiced concerns about its latest phase’s nearness to the expanding hatchery.
“We’re not against the project,” Coates stressed Tuesday.
“We just want to make sure it’s done right. We want to be prepared.”
The hatchery, which supplies shellfish growers in Washington, Oregon, California, British Columbia and internationally, is in the process of expanding its facilities to serve the Gulf Coast region, where hurricanes have destroyed oyster-growing operations.
Salmon delay requested
The company’s legal representatives this month sent a letter to Neil Werner, Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group executive director, asking that the salmon habitat restoration project be delayed until Coast’s concerns are satisfied.
“Even a temporary interruption in hatchery and nursery production at Quilcene would cause a significant disruption, and it could economically cripple the company,” states a June 6 letter signed by Adam Gravley, with the Seattle law firm of Buck & Gordon.
“Also, the company has a significant seed bag nursery in Quilcene Bay that could also be at risk from a significant increase in sedimentation and change in salinity.”
Officials with the Port of Port Townsend, which owns the bayside acreage where the hatchery operates, said restoration work could come within a half-mile of Coast Seafood’s site.
