PORT TOWNSEND — A booming regional shellfish industry has Coast Seafood Co. looking to expand its operation on Quilcene Bay and perhaps to Port Townsend, the hatchery’s manager said.
“The shellfish industry in the Northwest, especially in Washington, is just taking off,” Greg Coates, Coast Seafood hatchery manager in Quilcene told Port of Port Townsend commissioners Thursday at their work session.
“We’re struggling just to keep up.”
Commissioners Herb Beck of Quilcene and Bob Sokol and Dave Thompson of Port Townsend directed port staff to work with Coates to carry out the company’s initial expansion plan.
During commissioners’ afternoon meeting, they approved the company’s initial project to build an algal production greenhouse on a 31-by-120-foot concrete slab adjacent to the existing Coast offices and hatchery building.
Three 17,000-gallon tanks, two 5,000-gallon tanks and two 500-gallon tanks will be placed on the pad for algae culture, according to Coates’ proposal.
The greenhouse cover increases the growth of micro-algae and protects cultures from harsh weather.
The manager of the world’s largest oyster hatchery, which is on Port of Port Townsend-owned land at Herb Beck Marina and Industrial Park, presented plans to tear down a dilapidated, unused 2,000-square-foot building so the hatchery could develop a greenhouse used for the culture of micro-algae.
Algae cultured in tanks at the hatchery is fed to oysters and clam seeds raised there.