Washington State shellfish growers propose spraying of neurotoxin over coastal bays

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Coastodian

Click on the words above “Washington State shellfish growers” to see this entire post.

The banner image above shows the terminals at Grays Harbor.

After watching their promotional video below, you might ask yourself
“What’s in that Grays Harbor water, is it clean enough to grow food for human consumption?”

Watch a public hearing on this issue here. Meeting was held 10 Oct. in Lacey WA, near Olympia.

Watch a public hearing on this issue here. Meeting was held 7 Oct. in South Bend WA, at Willapa Bay.

Shellfish growers from Willapa Grays Harbor Oyster Growers Association (WGHOGA) have requested a permit to use the pesticide imidacloprid on burrowing shrimp in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.

You can read more about this here.

Both bodies of water are located on the Washington State coast, SW of Puget Sound.

Shellfish growers in Tomales Bay import oysters grown in Willapa Bay from time to time.

Please comment on the proposed spraying of toxic pesticides, you can do so here< NOTE: COMMENT PERIOD IS CLOSED

Read all comments here.

Read a letter from Washington Fish and Wildlife Office here.

Read a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Service here.

Read a letter from The Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides here.

Let Washington State know that spraying a highly toxic, highly soluble, and highly persistent pesticide in Willapa Bay is unacceptable. Other methods to grow oysters can be used.

Please let Tomales Bay shellfish growers know that you will NOT buy oysters grown by those who poison the ocean.

The poison in question has been directly linked to the widespread deaths of honeybees worldwide, known as Colony Collapse Disorder CCD. Read about that here.

Best Management Practices (BMP) Meeting change of venue, agenda available

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Coastodian

All,

A larger room was need to accommodate the growing audience.

New room is named Buck Hall.

Everything else is the same

We also received an agenda today for the meeting on Monday.

Click the blue text for agenda, on window that pops up, click on document to see it.
REVISED Agenda-Map-Bckgrnd BMP stakeholder mtg (17Jul2017 Room change)

Action Alert – Transparent, honest coastal protection under attack – write now!

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Coastodian

The California coast bears no resemblance to Atlantic City, thankfully.

For good reason.

To keep it this way you need to write governor Brown and chair Gonzalez NOW, see below for details.

For over 40 years, the California Coastal Commission has been tirelessly working to protect this priceless gem from selfish development.

Earlier this year State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced SB-1190 to prohibit private, off-the-record communications with Coastal Commissioners that could influence decision-making.

This important and needed piece of legislation has been shelved by way of some political BS-ery.

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Please write Governor Jerry Brown and committee Chair Lorena Gonzalez and tell them you want:

– SB-1190 to be passed

– A ban on ex-parte discussions between anyone and Coastal Commissioners

– Transparency on all Coastal Commission matters

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HOW TO CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS

Governor Jerry Brown Phone: (916) 445-2841

Chair Lorena Gonzalez Phone: (916) 319-2080
Twitter: @LorenaAD80 with #saveyourcoast

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon Phone: (916) 319-2063

Please act now!

[gview file=”https://coastodian.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SB-1190-Fact-Sheet-Approps-Claims-Aug-4_final.pdf”]

If you want the California coast to look like this, do nothing:

Used under Creative Commons license, photo by Bob Jagendorf

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If you want the California coast to look more like this, ACT NOW! It won’t protect itself.

Read more about this important matter in the LA Times.

Action Alert – Sonoma Coast needs you to speak up 13 April, Santa Rosa

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Coastodian

Please click on the words above “Action Alert – Sonoma Coast needs you …” to see this entire post.

The people of Sonoma County oppose the California State Parks proposal that aims to add many new fee locations along the Sonoma Coast. The proposal will charge the public $8/day to access some of Sonoma County’s favorite beaches including Bodega Head, Shell Beach, Goat Rock, Stump Beach more. The California Coastal Commission will decide on whether or not the proposed fees will go into effect.

PLEASE ATTEND THIS MEETING ON APRIL 13th IN SANTA ROSA – VETERAN’S HALL.
Map found here

Save our planet – Let’s send Nestlé a message

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Coastodian

Dear Richard,

California is experiencing its most severe drought in recorded history. Lakes and rivers are drying up, and cities are instituting water rationing. Meanwhile, Nestlé Waters’ bottling plants are operating at full volume, taking water from cities and National Forests alike.

Take Action, sign this petition.

Nestlé’s unethical actions are part of a trend – for years Nestlé has been working around the world to privatize community water resources, selling it back to people at significant markup and trashing our planet with plastic. It’s clear that Nestlé won’t change its practices without significant public pressure. But if enough people – and businesses – stand together to say “enough is enough,” we can start to change things around.

Sprouts is a grocery chain that operates 212 stores around the U.S., many of them in California. Sprouts says it cares about our environment – so why is it selling Nestlé’s unethically sourced Arrowhead Springs water? We’re organizing green retailers, starting with “sustainable” grocery chain Sprouts, to let Nestlé know that its refusal to conserve water is unacceptable.

With California drying up, the state can hardly afford to waste water. Tell Sprouts Farmers Market to stop selling Nestlé’s illegally sourced Arrowhead Springs water!

In one particularly egregious example, Nestlé is pumping water from the San Bernardino National Forest in California for their Arrowhead Springs brand using a U.S. Forest Service special use permit that expired over 25 years ago. The company pays only $524 each year to profit off of this public land. Legal pressure from The Story of Stuff Project and our partners at the Courage Campaign and Center for Biological Diversity has convinced the Forest Service they should begin to review the expired permit, but there is no reason public citizens should stand idly by in the meantime.

Nestlé is giving the people – and ecosystems – of California short shrift. It’s time to send a message to Nestlé that exploiting California’s National Forests for water is unacceptable.

Sprouts Farmers Market is a large company that cares about sustainability, stating “Responsible retailing for Sprouts is… partnering with suppliers and vendors to ensure that the products we sell are responsibly sourced; reducing waste and our environmental footprint.” Yet Sprouts carries bottles of Nestle’s Arrowhead Springs, the same water being taken unsustainably from the National Forest in San Bernardino!

Nestlé’s Arrowhead Springs is not a sustainable product – quite the opposite, in fact. Tell “sustainable” grocery chain Sprouts to stop carrying Arrowhead Springs today!

Selling Nestlé’s Arrowhead Springs water contradicts Sprouts’ principles of sustainable sourcing and minimizing waste. This is a product that is draining a unique ecosystem dry AND trashing our planet with plastic! If retailers like Sprouts refuse to continue supporting Nestlé’s bad practices, it will grab Nestlé’s attention and force the company to change.

Story of Stuff Community members who recently attended an organized hike with our Campaigns Director in San Bernardino, California want to launch a campaign calling on Sprouts to stop selling Nestlé’s Arrowhead Springs water immediately. In doing so they plan to impact Nestlé’s sales directly while also educating fellow public citizens who shop at Sprouts about Nestlé’s actions. You can help their great idea sprout by signing our petition today.

The truth is that Nestlé’s operations in California have worldwide ramifications, as does our response. While Nestlé makes millions of dollars exporting water from a federal drought disaster area, our waterways fill with plastic, and our ecosystems pay the price. If we’re going to live sustainably on this planet, we all need to pitch in and do our part.

Ask grocery retailer Sprouts to stop selling Nestle’s unsustainable Arrowhead Springs water today!

Thank you for all you do!

Emma Cape, on behalf of The Story of Stuff team

Source
Sprouts Farmers Market, Responsible Retailing

Save our planet – Our Water, Our Future – No to Nestlé

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Coastodian

Dear Readers,

If you’ve been following The Story of Stuff Project this last year, you probably know that it’s high time Nestlé changes how it does business. All around the world, Nestlé has been a leader in the effort to privatize our public water, and sell it back to us in little plastic bottles. But more brave communities are starting to fight back. One group in Cascade Locks, Oregon is doing something truly historic, and we need your help to spread their story.

The more people who learn about this campaign against Nestlé, the harder it will be to ignore. Nestlé puts millions of dollars each year into advertising, trying to convince people around the world that bottled water is good for people and our planet. Upon discovering that The Story of Stuff Project planned to release a new film about Cascade Locks, Nestlé even tried to preempt us by releasing a misleading video of their own. But we know the truth: a sustainable society and a healthy planet requires protecting water as a public right, NOT as a source for corporate profits!

We may not have Nestlé’s financial resources, but our community of a million supporters worldwide is a force to be reckoned with. With your help, we can spread this story even farther than Nestlé’s advertising dollars.

Will you help us share this story with your friends and neighbors?

https://www.facebook.com/storyofstuff/videos/10154741725385884/

We’ve already gotten Nestlé’s attention; now we need to keep up the pressure. Nestlé thinks it can continue expanding its water bottling operations indefinitely, until public springs run dry and our oceans fill with plastic. We need to let Nestlé and communities know that a better alternative exists.

We’re standing with the people in Cascade Locks as they defend their community against the influence of Nestlé and other bottling corporations. Our demands are simple: we want clean public water for everyone, and we want Nestlé to stop bottling in communities like this one, where citizens are protesting the privatization of their resources. This Story belongs to everyone, and you can help write the ending. By sharing our new video, you can help us increase public pressure on Nestlé AND connect with more communities making a difference.

When enough people act together, we can change the way corporations do business – for the better. To challenge global giant Nestlé, we need your help growing this movement, from coast to coast and country to country.

Will you help spread the word by sharing the story of these brave changemakers’ campaign to defend their public water from Nestlé on Facebook?

Thank you for all you do!
Emma Cape, on behalf of The Story of Stuff team

Action Alert – Klamath River needs you – 3 minutes to save salmon and more

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Coastodian

Click on the words above “Action Alert – Klamath River needs you…” to see this entire post

Help restore 300 miles of historic salmon spawning habitat!

Dear Reader,

The California Water Board wants to hear from you about how dams impact water quality in the Klamath River. The agency recently restarted a process to bring the dams into compliance with the Clean Water Act and must draft a new Environmental Impact Report.

The Water Board could recommend dam removal as the only viable alternative to restoring clean water in the Klamath River – or they could compromise, fail to uphold water quality standards, and allow PacifiCorp to operate the dams for the next 50 years. Please click here and urge the Water Board to support dam removal.

In addition to submitting written comments, please consider joining Klamath Riverkeeper staff and members at public hearings next Monday in Arcata or Tuesday in Orleans and Yreka. Click here for details.

Why this? Why Now?

Congress failed to pass legislation before a December 2015 deadline that would have implemented the multi-stakeholder Klamath Settlement Agreements for dam removal, water sharing, and restoration. While many stakeholders are frustrated with Congress, the Klamath Settlement Agreement process produced new scientific evidence showing that the dams violate the Clean Water Act and must be removed.

The good news is that dam owner PacifiCorp continues to publicly support dam removal as long as the company receives protection from liability during and after dam removal. In August 2014, PacifiCorp applied for a Clean Water Act certification from the state of California – a prerequisite to dam relicensing. This certification process allows the Water Board to set conditions for dam relicensing that leave no alternative but dam removal.

Please take this important action and spread the word today.

For a free-flowing Klamath,

All of us at Klamath Riverkeeper

Why care about wild salmon? Copper, we need more copper and molybdenum!

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Coastodian

Click on the words “Why care about wild salmon” above to see this post with a related header image.

Humans are really good at destroying natural processes that work just fine left unmolested, for example, a wild salmon run.

Then, someone with dollar signs in their eyes and an MBA from some well-respected business school comes along and figures out how to capitalize on the situation, and screw things up even more.

Several weeks ago I was diving for abalone along the northern coast of California, an enjoyable, exhausting activity, even when the ocean is calm and visibility is good. I was knackered after two hours exploring and retrieving a few abs and had hauled myself out on the rocky shore to rest a bit before heading back to the car.

[nggallery id=4]

As I drug myself from the surf on hands and knees, I looked to my left, just above the lapping waves and saw something strange, something out of place. It looked like a salmon head, resting on a large rock. Pffft, no way could a salmon head be sitting on a rock here I thought. Removing my mask I looked again. Sure enough, there was a salmon head, perched on a rock with something bright and flat under it. This was not a coho or chinook salmon either. As I crawled closer I could see it was an Atlantic salmon, like one sees in the market these days, perched on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.

I picked it up and found that it had what appeared to be a price tag hanging by a thin plastic thread off the opercle (cheek). What the hell? I thought to myself.

Then I read the tag and was even more dumb-founded. It had a QR code on one side and what appeared to be a brand on the other. Holy Jesus I thought, Monsanto is raising fish that are already priced.

I packed this oddity into my gear, crawled back into the sea after a rest and swam back to my things, then drove home.

Once home, I looked up the brand on the internet and found that this fish had been raised in a pen off the shore of Patagonia, over 5000 miles south of where I found it.

Furthermore, I found that it was raised at a place touting itself to be “Raising salmon in harmony with nature”. A little more sleuthing on this website and I found that this fish was likley sold at a market not too many miles from where I found it. A gull probably plucked this morsel from a dumpster, flew off to enjoy some easy grub, then got distracted or some such thing.

These people at Verlasso are working with the likes of AquaChile and Dupont to turn out food for people to eat. I don’t know about you, but when I think of food, DuPont is probably the last name that comes to mind. Think dynamite, teflon, tyvek – NOT food.

So yes, we humans have screwed up hundreds, if not thousands of perfectly healthy salmon runs the world over. So much so that enterprising folks like Verlasso are going to save us from ourselves by farming fish that are in harmony with nature. Mind you, these fish have done pretty damn well on their own until we got all clever and greedy on this dang planet. But these are smart people, with degrees and training and know-how.

Have a look at their website, it has lots of nice cartoons showing how to grow fish in harmony with nature.

If you want another view of salmon farming, go here, or here, or here.

How many of you thousands of readers (snicker) know about the unfolding disaster called The Pebble Mine up in Alaska?

The proposed mine will be 3 times the size of the Kennecott mine shown here. Image borrowed from https://fishermenforbristolbay.org/pebble-mine/

A perfectly good sockeye salmon run is at risk of being destroyed by a bunch of greedy business people interested in mining copper, gold and molybdenum and other things MUCH more important than some stupid fish.

Read about the Pebble Mine here.

What if we left that copper in the ground?

A healthy sockeye salmon run would create salmon in harmony with nature, all on it’s own.

Greedy business people the world over would not further threaten wild salmon runs by playing god as they attempt to grow salmon in harmony with nature. We don’t need more food on this planet, we need less humans screwing things up.

The Coastodian

Category Archives: Action Alert