Editor,

Concerning Ian Jefferds’ comment that he is offended because he may be required to prove his commercial shellfish farm in Penn Cove does not result in “adverse environmental impact,” I submit the following.

For six months this past winter I lived and worked on Protection Island Wildlife Refuge, a 380-acre island in the Salish sea between Port Townsend and Sequim.

Over the course of five of those months on the island I retained items discovered washed up on the island’s beach.

Of these were more than 50 large black plastic disks which have “Manufactured by Penn Cove Shellfish, LLC” and its telephone number embossed upon them.

These items are used in the farming process at the Penn Cove commercial facility, and the staff has told me that “some float away.”

If my findings are representative of the remaining beaches in Puget Sound, a mathematical computation would result in a shocking number of this non-biodegradable litter being constantly distributed upon our beaches.

Pollution is pollution, Mr. Jefferds.

Of greater concern to me is what is happening to the sea bed below the rafts. I believe we need to have a study done to determine if harm has occurred to the sea life below those rafts.

Lewis Brantley

Coupeville