04-08-13 KGO Radio Pat Thurston interview of Kevin Lunny

KGO RADIO 810 NEWS

PAT THURSTON SHOW

April 8, 2013

San Francisco

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“But Ken Salazar rejected the extension, told Drake’s Bay to cease operations by the end of February to get off the land and remove the equipment by March 15. Luckily, they got a reprieve from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but the battle to save Drake’s continues. You know, they’re an institution, and they are one that operates in an environmentally responsible way. This is a company that deserves our admiration. They deserve to be put on a pedestal for others to emulate, for others to copy, to see how you are proper stewards of the land. And instead, they’re being threatened.”   Pat Thurston, KGO Radio News

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“The wilderness activists. Because when I first saw this issue, I wondered if this was a fight between environmentalists and Marin agriculture. So I started looking into it to see if you were not good stewards of the land – if you were polluting the land. And the absolute opposite is true. You’ve cleaned up the operation from the previous owner. It’s every – every, every, every – entity that I’ve spoken with out in your area loves you. And thinks that you are the best that everybody should be doing the kind of business that you’re doing, both in the ranching your family’s been involved in for three generations and also with the oysters.”  Pat Thurston, KGO Radio News

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“Our nation, and actually around the world, and our federal government is doing everything it can, spending millions of dollars everywhere else around the country – in the Chesapeake, in the Gulf, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound – encouraging shellfish aquaculture, encouraging people like us to grow more shellfish because of the ecosystem services, the ecological value that oysters bring. Because what they do is they filter water. They improve the clarity of the water so sunlight makes it through and sub aquatic vegetation does better. They cycle nutrients that would otherwise be pollutants, like nitrogen and phosphorus. And they turn it into this fabulous protein that we remove from the ocean system to eat, and what goes through the oysters as feces actually now is converted into a form usable by sub aquatic vegetation. So that’s why we see vegetation like eelgrass thrive when shellfish aquaculture is there. So it has all the reasons in the world that we want to protect it. And that’s why what you said earlier is true – true environmentalists love the oyster farm. They recognize that this is the perfect example of cooperative conservation, allowing food production in a beautiful, protected area because they actually benefit each other. And so it’s really the ideologues, the people that just cannot tolerate any kind of use of public land like this, those are the folks that would like to see Drake’s Bay gone.”  Kevin Lunny, Drakes Bay Oyster Company on Pat Thurston Show

 

To hear the entire interview, click on this link. : (WE REGRET ARCHIVE COPY IS NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. A REQUEST WAS PUT THROUGH TO PAT THURSTON THIS EVENING 7-20-13 AND SHE WILL HAVE HER PRODUCER GET BACK TO ME)

Posted by Jane Gyorgy on April 8, 2013

https://oysterzone.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/04-08-13-kgo-radio-pat-thurston-interview-of-kevin-lunny/