officials are asking China to reduce the ban area from the West Coast to just the two original areas of concern. In the meantime, harvesters and buyers are continuing to send their catches to other Asian countries, including Vietnam. “We’re working with China to figure out why we suddenly don’t meet their standards,” he said. The shellfish in question from Poverty Bay passed all the rigorous tests needed to be exported to China, said David Fyfe, shellfish biologist for Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. Officials from NOAA are meeting in person with officials from China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine this month to further discuss the situation. Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been working with Chinese officials to determine how they came to their conclusions and have been in close communication with Washington Department of Health and western Washington tribal officials about the progress. “China didn’t tell us for two weeks they were doing this.” “It was bad at the beginning because we didn’t know what was going on,” said Tony Forsman, general manager of the Suquamish Tribe’s Suquamish Seafoods, which regularly ships shellfish internationally. This was just before the Chinese New Year, a lucrative time for harvesters and buyers, when geoducks are traditionally served. Suquamish Seafoods employee James Banda packs geoduck for international shipping.Īs a result, China announced it was banning all imports of bivalve shellfish from Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Northern California. “The seed is looking good and the larvae on schedule to be ready in April.” Posted in Environment, Local News | Tagged algae, algae-growing, all-night feeding system, clams, Geoduck, Lummi Nation, shellfish hatchery Tribes Recovering from Geoduck Ban “The goal is to get the seed planted before the water temperatures get too warm,” Point said. Only the geoduck seed is sold commercially.Ĭoncerned about increasing water temperatures as a result of climate change, some of the geoduck seed customers, which include the Squaxin Island Tribe, have started seeding their beds earlier, which required the hatchery to spawn geoducks a month earlier. The shellfish hatchery used to support itself through seed sales until the Lummi Nation took over operating costs in exchange for manila clam and oyster seed to enhance the reservation tidelands for tribal harvest. In addition to eight full-time staff, AmeriCorps provides five employees for 20 hours each week, and two tribal members have been hired through the Dislocated Fishers Program, which helps fishermen earn a living between fishing seasons. The expansion has provided new job opportunities. The geoduck operation has a total of 20 raceways when all three systems are online, having expanded from five raceways since 2010. “Overnight, it can produce an amount of algae that is equivalent to one of the hatchery’s 15,000-liter algae tanks.” “The new algae bag system will operate 24-7,” said Flavian Point, Lummi shellfish hatchery manager. One of the hatchery’s three geoduck systems consists of 11 raceways that hold about 6 million geoduck seeds, which can go through 30,000 liters of algae a day. The new system installed this winter consists of 60 algae-filled bags in glowing Gatorade shades that pump directly into the raceways. The Lummi Nation’s shellfish hatchery is adding an all-night feeding system to its algae-growing operation.įor years, the hatchery has grown its own algae to feed growing manila clam, geoduck and oyster larvae. Lummi’s shellfish hatchery grows its own algae to feed millions of geoduck, manila and oyster seeds.īy: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
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