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Date Posted: 08:08:11 01/26/08 Sat
Author: Anonamouse
Subject: Just Say No to Geoducks

(Must keep vigilant on this. They tried before and failed even with severe threats of litigation. They will try again knowing that tyically what little resistance they encountered will usually get tired and give up. The whole island should fight the incursion of ANY geoduck farms in our waters.)

Geoduck farms considered
As many as 10 operations could be started along the coast
Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, December 22, 2006

B.C. I The provincial government is considering applications for up to 10 geoduck farms along the B.C. coast. If approved, they would be the first commercial geoduck farms in the province.

But critics say the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands should delay making any decision on the applications until scientists can determine conclusively what impact the farms would have on the surrounding environment and on wild geoduck populations.

They say given the controversy around salmon farming, it would be irresponsible of the government to rush into approving a new kind of aquaculture without first establishing the consequences of those farms on the natural world.

The applications call for farms to be established near Savary Island, Hernando Island, Cortes Island, Denman Island, Quadra Island, Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt and Jervis Inlet.

In total they would cover 380 hectares of deep-water seabed in areas where wild geoduck used to be plentiful but have now disappeared due to over-harvesting.

"There are huge gaps and questions around this kind of aquaculture," said NDP small business and revenue critic Gregor Robertson, who also is a member of the province's committee on sustainable aquaculture. "There's no peer-reviewed science, so it would be premature for the government to start approving applications without any basis in good science."

But Al Castledine, director for aquaculture for the ministry, says government biologists have been studying the matter since 1996 thanks to a pilot project developed near Marina Island, just south of Cortes Island, and that if licences are awarded, they will be awarded carefully.

"For the last three to five years, we've been working cooperatively with the [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] to see how we can expand this opportunity in a cautious manner," Castledine said.

In deep-water geoduck farms, hatchery-born juveniles are placed at least 10 metres down on the ocean floor and then covered with a plastic mesh for two years to protect them from predators. The mesh is then removed, and the geoduck are allowed to grow another five to eight years before being harvested.

Michelle James, executive director of the Underwater Harvesters Association (UHA), says her group expects to receive permission to farm geoducks near Hernando Island next spring.

However, while she insists that deep-water geoduck farming has "minimal impacts" on wild populations, she admits that no conclusive scientific research has been done on the subject.

"Any research around geoducks is a lengthy process," she said.

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