Hilary Franz, Chair of the Board, Commissioner of Public Lands, cpl@dnr.wa.gov

Lisa Janicki, Vice-Chair, Commissioner, Skagit County, lisaj@co.skagit.wa.us

Chris Rekdal, Superintendent, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, chris.rekydal@k12.wa.us

Wendy Powers-Schilling, Dean, College of Agriculture, Human & Natural Resources Sciences, Washington State University

Clare Ryan, Interim Director, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, cmryan@uw.edu

Jim Cahill, Senior Budget Advisor, Designee for Governor Jay Inslee, jim.cahill@ofm.wa.gov

A copy of the petition will also be delivered to the following Advisors to Governor Jay Inslee:

Robert Duff, Executive Director of Policy & Outreach

Ruth Musgraves, Senior Policy Advisor, Natural Resources, ruth.musgrave@gov.wa.gov

Carrie Sessions, Senior Policy Advisor, Environment & Water

General Email for the Board of Natural Resources: bnr@dnr.wa.gov

Link to BNR Roster on DNR website.

Pollution

A chronic and primary environmental impact associated with open water net pens is the discharge of untreated effluent, including fish waste, feed, pharmaceuticals, deceased fish, etc. There is no mechanism to capture animal waste from open water net pen aquaculture. Unlike terrestrial animal production where animal manure is collected and composted, waste (feces, urine, medicines, and uneaten feed) from open water net pen facilities is discharged directly into public water.

The most prominent organic nutrient waste involved are phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). When all of Puget Sound’s net pens were in operation in 2017, the facilities collectively discharged an estimated 4,326 lbs of untreated Nitrogen every day, roughly equivalent to the daily N treated by the cities of Bellingham, Everett, Port Angeles, and Tacoma combined, and 924 lbs of untreated Phosphorous (P) roughly equivalent to the P treated by the city of Tacoma every day (Gayeski, 2020).

Spread of Viruses, Parasites, and Other Pathogens

Like any extreme-density livestock operation, open net pen salmon farms are breeding grounds for pathogens and parasites.

In Puget Sound, net pens have experienced outbreaks of both native viruses present in the natural environment, as well as exotic viruses introduced through the transfer of eggs.

In 2012, three commercial salmon net pens off of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound experienced an outbreak of the salmon virus IHNV2, one of the most virulent salmonid pathogens. The high densities of Atlantic salmon in the net pens, which are highly susceptible to Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) , are thought to have artificially amplified the number of viral particles present.

The viral outbreak occurred in a salmon migratory corridor during April and May when juvenile Chinook salmon emigration nears its peak. The industry reacted by euthanizing and disposing of over one million pounds of their product. Due to Washington State’s lax regulations, an assessment of the outbreak’s impact on native fish in Puget Sound was never conducted.

In 2018, a study published by Wild Fish Conservancy and colleagues detailed the findings of viral sampling and genetic sequencing of escaped Atlantic salmon following the 2017 Cypress Island collapse. The results demonstrated that nearly 100% of the escaped fish were infected with a rare and potentially lethal exotic virus from Iceland that had never been previously documented in the North Pacific. This research exposed that Cooke Aquaculture had imported infected eggs from their supplier in Iceland and then amplified and spread the virus in their Puget Sound net pens without detection from state agencies. These infected escaped fish traveled throughout Puget Sound and into our most important salmon producing rivers.

Escape Events
Escapes of farmed fish, of both large and small quantities, have been a regular occurrence worldwide since the industry’s inception.

The escape of farmed fish, regardless of whether they are native or nonnative, pose three major ecological threats to the natural environment:

1. competition for food and spawning habitat by escaped adults attempting to survive and spawn in the wild

2. colonization and establishment of self-sustaining populations in local rivers home to federally-protected and economically-important Pacific salmon and steelhead

3. spread of disease and parasites to wild salmon and steelhead.

Farmed salmon escapes are generally under-estimated and under-reported worldwide, and reports from commercial and recreational fishing show that Puget Sound is no exception to this trend.

In August 2017, Washington experienced a catastrophic collapse event in which over 260,000 non-native, and viral-infected farmed fish (see above) were released into Puget Sound. A multi-agency investigation by the state found Cooke Aquaculture was negligent and at fault for the collapse. In a lawsuit brought by Our Sound, Our Salmon facilitator Wild Fish Conservancy, Cooke agreed to settle for $2.75 million in Clean Water Act violations.

In 1999, a net pen facility collapsed releasing approximately 100,000 non-native salmon into Puget Sound.

Efforts to recover farmed fish that have escaped their net pens can also result in bycatch of wild fish, including ESA-listed species. Washington’s former net pen operations were located in and adjacent to important migration corridors for protected fish species and conservation areas designated for protection due to their unique and sensitive habitat for a diversity of protected and other species. WDFW modified fishing restrictions to allow increased fishing in response to Cooke’s 2017 farm collapse. Massive efforts were undertaken by Tribal and other fishermen to recover as many farmed fish as possible in response to that event. These efforts inevitably capture, trap, wound, kill, and wild fish that may be ESA-listed.

Bycatch

The industry harvests fish by fastening a vessel to a farm, lowering a tube into a net pen, and suction pumping fish into the vessel.

Canada reports significant bycatch of numerous fish species, including salmonids, such as Chinook salmon and chum salmon, and rockfish species. While there is little data on bycatch in Washington, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (“WDFW”) recently acknowledged this bycatch for the first time and predicted that bycatch would be similar to that reported in Canada.

While in operation, Cooke Aquaculture employees were observed shoveling bycatch into Puget Sound during harvest operations, with pinnipeds and gulls waiting to feed on the discharged fish. Discharging bycatch (otherwise known as chumming) encountered during harvest further results in take when protected species alter essential behavioral patterns, including migrations, due to this false attraction.

False Attraction

Fish, birds, and marine mammals, including ESA-listed species, are attracted to net pen operations due to the unnatural concentrations of farmed fish, feed, waste, effluent, blood, and decomposing fish within net pens that is discharged into the surrounding marine environment.

Underwater cameras near Puget Sound net pens observed wild fish species entering the pens and aggregating near them to feed on discharged waste material.

This further attracts predators, including marine mammals, birds, and other fish, prey upon ESA-listed fish present at the net pens at greater levels than would otherwise occur.

Farmed fish within net pens also prey upon protected fish that are attracted to and enter net pens.

Proposed Rule Language:

"In WAC 332-30-106 Definitions, add a new definition to define commercial finfish net pen aquaculture and renumber the remaining definitions accordingly.

• "Commercial finfish net pen aquaculture” means a system of nets, cages, or other containment systems in open water used to cultivate, feed, and raise “finfish” (as defined in WAC 220-370 050(3)) to marketable size for the purpose of harvesting and selling the same as a crop. Commercial finfish net pen aquaculture does not include operations and containment systems used to raise finfish for open-water release or used to raise finfish solely for tribal ceremonial and subsistence uses.

 In WAC 332-30 add a new section

• Commercial finfish net pen aquaculture shall not be authorized on state-owned aquatic lands.

More Resources:

• CR-102- proposed rule
  

• Commissioner Franz November 2022 Executive Order currently in place
  

• PowerPoint by DNR at the November Board of Natural Resources meeting

• Wild Fish Conservancy Comment Letter on DNR Commercial Marine Finfish Net Pen Aquaculture Rulemaking Process (November 2024)

  • Appendixes- Google Drive
    

• Cover Letter to Commissioner Hilary Franz (July 2020)
  

• Press Release: Washington State Makes History with Bold New Policy Ending Commercial Net Pen Aquaculture in Puget Sound — Our Sound, Our Salmon

• Summary of Major Findings of the Biological Opinion on Puget Sound Commercial Net Pens (May 2022)
  

• Learn More About Commercial Net Pens — Our Sound, Our Salmon
  

• Piscine orthoreovirus sequences in escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Washington and British Columbia

  • Publication found likely >99% of the Atlantic salmon that escaped the Cypress Island net pen collapse were infected with a potentially lethal virus— Piscine Reovirus (PRV). Genetic sequencing of the virus exposed the PRV was of Icelandic origin and was imported by the industry through their Atlantic salmon eggs and then amplified and spread in Puget Sound