Image above: 6/17/2023
Source/Daily Status Reports: Washington State Department of Health Shellfish Safety Map
Click image once or twice to show detail.
In the news:
May 22, 2023 The Seattle Times
Researchers rush to find cause of contagious cancer in PNW clams
An extensive Seattle Times article about a weather event impacting the health of shellfish:
“Penn Cove is one of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s important clam beaches, said Julie Barber, senior shellfish biologist for Swinomish.”
“When our team went back a year later, it was just covered in cockle shells,” Barber said. “It looked like a huge mass mortality event.”
“They can’t say definitively that the heat dome caused the die-off, but the shells were covered in barnacles that were approximately the same size, implying everything died around the same time a year prior.”
Love to see newspeople ask:
When is the last time all of Penn Cove was safe for recreational shellfish harvest?
Background
Several Whidbey beaches remain closed all year long for recreational shellfish harvest because of sewage treatment outfall.
Sewage treatment outfall. Not stormwater. Not climate change.
Reporting on this topic appears to be completely off limits to the press.
View the Washington State Department of Health beach list here.
A photo tour of Penn Cove here:
Wastewater Treatment Plant – Department of Ecology Award For Outstanding Performance
Coupeville
“Clams, mussels and oysters CLOSED year-round.”
“This beach is within the closure area for a sewage treatment plant outfall and is unsafe for recreational shellfish harvesting.”
Source: WDFW
North side of Penn Cove at Monroe Landing
“Clams, mussels and oysters CLOSED year-round.”
“This beach is within the closure area for a sewage treatment plant outfall and is unsafe for recreational shellfish harvesting.”
Source: WDFW
Americans do not live in a free and honest society.
In a free and honest society, newspeople would be asking questions related to public policy all of the time.
Voting is highly emphasized in American culture. Asking questions related to public policy takes a lower priority.
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
Distance learning idea:
Podcast 4 Another Month With An R – Whidbey Sewage Treatment Plant Outfalls
Whidbey Waters – Mixed Signals of Concern
March 13, 2020 Whidbey News-Times
4th grade students publish book on Salish Sea
“Invisible Pollution in the Salish Sea”
School teachers,
Are you teaching your students to look for green colors on the Recreational Shellfish Safety Map?
Related:
WDFW Monitors Water Quality at Penn Cove