OLYMPIA — The state Department of Health has suspended the license of G&R Quality Seafood in Quilcene, saying the firm is suspected of illegal harvesting of shellfish.
“State health officials intend to revoke the firm’s license,” said the department in a prepared statement released Thursday.
In March, after a 13-month multiagency investigation, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife arrested two men.
Two arrested
Donald Lance Owens, 43, of Quilcene was arrested for investigation of first-degree theft, possession of stolen property and failure to report commercial shellfish harvesting.
Rodney Allan Clark, 45, also of Quilcene — who is the owner of G&R Quality Seafood, also known as Quil Bay Seafood in Quilcene — was arrested for investigation of five counts of being a felon in possession of a gun. Clark had served time in prison in the 1990s in Montana for manufacturing methamphetamine.
Deputy Chief Mike Cenci of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that detectives believed the seafood company employed harvesters to take thousands of pounds of oysters and hard-shell clams from state and private tidelands in the Quilcene, Dabob and north Hood Canal areas.
“They did not have certification to harvest,” Cenci said.
Cenci said the agency alleged Owens and others illegally gathered hundreds of thousands of shellfish from tidelands managed by the state Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Parks and private lands.
Statement
The state said Thursday that “suspected illegal shellfish harvesting and other company license violations have led the state Department of Health to immediately suspend the license of G&R Quality Seafood, Quilcene.
“In addition to illegal harvest activities, the department has identified improper tagging violations,” the state said in its statement.
Tags allow authorities to trace shellfish back to their sources during illness investigations.
Fish and Wildlife officers seized shellfish that didn’t bear the required certification tags, two barges, a 16-foot vessel, five firearms and a van, the state said.
