prescriptive standards to control nonpoint sources in its 1989 Puget 
Sound Water Quality Management Plan. 
Finally, the Puget Sound plan requires the Washington State 
Department of Parks and Recreation to obtain a Memorandum of 
Understanding with the U.S. Coast Guard to permit state inspection of 
recreational vessels and other uninspected vessels under 65 feet in 
length for approved marine sanitation devices and to develop an 
inspection program, coordinated with a boaters' education program, 
focused on protecting shallow bays and other sensitive areas. 
Conclusion 
The capture fisherman and aquatic farmer are both dependent on clean 
water, providing economic incentives to preserve and improve water 
quality. Aquatic farmering is also uniquely dependent on the proper 
maintenance and enforcement of regional water quality standards. 
Problems caused by contamination of shellfish beds all too often can be 
traced to non-enforcement of existing laws, lax or improper application 
of existing land use codes, little or no inspection of on-site septic 
system, and a lack of proper disinfection at sewage treatment plants. 
Bacterial contamination is severely limiting our use of the bivalve 
shellfish resource in Puget Sound. Large areas are closed to commercial 
harvest and an adequate bacterial and toxicant monitoring program would 
undoubtably close numerous recreational shellfish beds (and perhaps 
additional commercial beds as well). Some microbiologists believe that 
viral and bacterial diseases from the waters or shellfish of Puget Sound 
are rare only because there is relatively little swimming in Puget Sound 
and because few shellfish species from the Sound are consumed without 
cooking. 
The PSWQA plan calls for major changes in sampling for bacteria and 
toxicants in shellfish from commercial and recreational harvest areas in 
the Sound. In addition, local and state governmental agencies have been 
asked to address and solve the nonpoint pollution problems which bring 
bacteria and toxics to the shellfish harvest areas. At this time, it's 
been left to the local governments to seek voluntary or mandatory 
compliance with issues like: insuring septic tanks are functioning 
properly, keeping farm animal wastes out of streams, reducing stormwater 
runoff, and reducing bacterial contamination from boats in marinas. 
If the local governments are not progressing satisfactorily in 
reducing the nonpoint sources of pollution between 1987 and 1989, the 
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