Shellfish grower may face fines

Taylor accused of using state-owned lands for profit

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published October 30, 2008

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The state might seek more than $1.3 million in damages from Taylor Shellfish Co. for geoducks the company raised and harvested on state lands in Totten Inlet the past three years without a lease.

Still to be decided are trespass damages to cover the oysters that the Mason County based company grew and harvested improperly on the 17 acres of state tidelands just northeast of Gallagher Cove.

Company officials insist they had no idea the tidelands were owned by the state. They said the tidelands were mistakenly folded into a purchase of private tidelands by the company in 1972.

The land dispute came to light last year after neighbors who opposed some of Taylor's commercial shellfish operations filed complaints with the state auditor's office that the company was illegally profiting from state lands. The critics have leveled charges that the shellfish company knew it was state land, which company officials have denied.

"We will document that it was an inadvertent mistake," Taylor Shellfish spokesman Bill Dewey said. "We have a strong case."

If Taylor doesn't make its case, the state Department of Natural Resources will seek triple compensatory damages on the land lease and 11.3 percent of the geoduck wholesale harvest value from the past three years. That has been calculated at $443,850, state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said in an Oct. 27 letter to company President Bill Taylor.

DNR is basing its claim on the state public lands trespass statute, which calls on the state to charge the fair market value of the tideland, as if the use had been authorized. The statute limits the claim to three years, DNR spokeswoman Jane Chavey said.

"DNR staff still needs to resolve the outstanding issue of oyster seed survival rates before calculating the past use values for the oyster aquaculture," Sutherland said in his letter.

What to do with the geoducks and oysters growing on the state land, and the future use of the property, won't be determined until the damage claim is resolved, Sutherland added.

"We have $3 million of geoduck and oyster product in limbo," Dewey said. "That could be a huge hit."

Taylor Shellfish has applied for a lease on the disputed state tidelands to continue growing shellfish. A competing lease request to protect the tideland habitat has been filed by Laura Hendricks, a Gig Harbor resident active in the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat.