The Bellingham Herald reports on a Lummi Nation clam dig: Recent low tides drew many Lummis to the sandy flats on and around Portage Island for harvest of horse clams,…
The Lummi Nation is surveying every species living in more than 7,000 acres of tidelands on the tribe’s reservation.
The Lummi Intertidal Baseline Inventory (LIBI), funded by the energy company BP, will be crucial in the event of a catastrophic oil spill from activities associated with four nearby oil refineries: BP and ConocoPhillips in Ferndale, and Tesoro and Shell at Anacortes.
“We want to know what’s living here now, so if there is a spill, we will know the extent of the damage,” said Merle Jefferson, Lummi Natural Resources director. “After the Exxon-Valdez spill, they had no pre-disaster data to compare it to.” (more…)
Every year, the Upper Skagit Tribe holds a couple of community clam digs for tribal members of all ages. "It's important for our members to get out there exercising our…
The Squaxin Island Tribe numbers individual clams on several growth plots around southern Puget Sound to get a good idea of how quickly shellfish grow on various beaches. Here is…
A University of Washington environmental journalism student blogs about the decline of salmon fisheries and what it means to the Swinomish Tribe.
The Bellingham Herald writes about Lummi tribal geoduck harvest: Cliff Cultee and other Lummi geoduck divers hope to get a chance to harvest the big, meaty clams again this spring.…
The P-I’s series on the Duwamish River Superfund site looks at the impact of the pollution on area tribes, which consume above-average amounts of seafood:
Health authorities condone eating salmon out of the Duwamish River up to four times a month. But some tribal members are consuming far more — eating it daily, in some cases.
Another tribe wants to gather clams from the polluted river after it’s cleaned up — but is criticizing the federal government for telling big Duwamish polluters and landowners to count on artificially low consumption rates.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to justify those lower rates, cited a study of a third tribe that doesn’t even fish the Duwamish — and eats a lot less seafood.
The Skagit Valley Herald covered the Swinomish Tribe's annual Blessing of the Fleet. The full article is available online: Serving hundreds of pounds of crab, prawns, clams and Columbia River…
The Seattle Times and Skagit Valley Herald (subscription required) reported on the results of the Swinomish Tribe’s study on toxics in their traditional shellfishing areas.
Seattle Times:
The study, funded by a $1.2 million grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), found enough of the so-called “bioaccumulative toxics” — chemicals that remain in the body for long periods of time — for many tribal members to worry because they eat about 20 times more shellfish than average Americans.
“We have a saying in Indian country that when the tide is out the table is set,” said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Tribal Community.
“Right now we are coming into the springtime, and our tribal members are hitting the beaches weekly. And for this study to show that our tribal members have to limit their intake is very sad.”
John Dodge in the Olympian: Faced with conclusive evidence that human sewage is entering Oakland Bay at two locations, the Mason County commissioners said Tuesday that they would take enforcement…