The Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales has worked for 18 years to protect Washington state’s small group of resident gray whales from harm.
We will not now sit back and watch a major gray whale feeding ground destroyed and whales likely being killed and injured by fish pens.
The Clallam County Department of Community Development may soon be issuing the first permit needed by Cooke Aquaculture to establish acres of Atlantic salmon pens east of Morse Creek.
Residents, fishermen and crabbers of the Morse Creek-Green Point area know that this small piece of coast is a true biological hot spot.
Healthy eelgrass beds stretch out a quarter-mile from shore.
And farther out is a critically important resident gray whale feeding area.
These whales have exhibited a site fidelity that has been documented for decades by vigilant bluff-dwellers at Green Point.
Their data show gray whales, sometimes with calves, feeding in every month of the year, every year, where the pens will locate.
Gray whales have poor eyesight and no sonar.
Thus, they are extremely vulnerable to entanglement.
And how long will the whales’ benthic prey species or the eelgrass survive the daily bombardment of waste and pesticides from the “farm,” as prevailing winds and currents blow in from the northwest?
Why on earth should Clallam County turn over 50-plus acres here to further the corporate profits of this dirty industry?
We don’t believe that economic might and weak promises should trump the the love we have for these waters and the wildlife that depends on it.
This permit should be denied, or at the least an environmental impact statement required.
Margaret Owens,
Joyce
EDITOR’S NOTE: Owens is a founder and organizer of the Peninsula Citizens for Protection of Whales.