Open-water Net pens have a poor environmental safety record that includes thousands of escaped salmon, a major viral outbreak, and decades of pollution.

This history of environmental harm is consistent with the environmental record of the net pen industry, which has an extensive history of negatively impacting local ecosystems and harming wild fish populations everywhere they operate.

For years, a Washington-based company called Icicle Seafoods owned and operated all eight net pens in Puget Sound. However, in 2016 Icicle and their Puget Sound Atlantic salmon net pens were purchased by Cooke Aquaculture, an international corporation with major salmon farm operations in Chile, Spain, Scotland, Canada, and Maine. Following their purchase, Cooke Aquaculture unveiled an ambitious plan to dramatically expand their operation in Washington and transform Puget Sound into an epicenter of Atlantic salmon net pen production.

In August 2017, Cooke Aquaculture allowed the escape of over 300,000 nonnative Atlantic salmon into Washington waters.  We may never know the true impact this event had and continues to have on wild salmon in the Northwest. The good news is - the WA State legislature passed a bill in 2018, Engrossed House Bill 2957, that will phase out the Atlantic salmon net pen industry from Washington State by 2024. Governor Inslee signed the bill on March 23rd.

Now Cooke Aquaculture is back with a new proposal to transition their facilities to biologically altered steelhead not prohibited by Washington’s hard-fought law. This new proposal circumvents the will of the public and once again puts Puget Sound at risk of industrial net pen aquaculture.

Scroll down farther to learn more about the harms caused by Atlantic salmon net pens, as well as industrially farmed native species.

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The Truth About industrial
open-water Net Pens

In our world of alternative facts and fake news it should come as no surprise that there is a lot of misinformation and inaccurate claims flying around about net pen aquaculture. So we wanted to provide some facts and explain the real story behind the 10 biggest myths about nets pens in Washington.

Myth 1: The large-scale net pen industry is a responsible environmental steward with a track record of protecting native fish and waters.  

Everywhere industrial net pens operate - from Norway to British Columbia to Chile - ecosystems and wild fish populations suffer. The long list of environmental impacts created by net pens includes issues such as polluting local waters with millions of pounds of untreated waste; the spread of lethal sea lice to wild salmon; disease outbreaks that spread to wild fish; deadly algae blooms; pesticide induced die offs of shrimp and crabs; and whale, otter, and seal deaths caused by entanglement in net pens. In fact, a major reason for the net pen industry’s interest in the expansion of net pens in Puget Sound is because farmed salmon prices are at record highs across the globe due to environmental issues.

Myth 2: Industrial net pens are more stringently regulated than any other industry in Washington.

Although the list of regulations for the net pen industry may seem robust at first glance, a deeper dive into them reveals that many of these regulations either require the bare minimum or nothing at all. Five state agencies have authority to regulate some component of the net pen industry in Washington, but there is little coordination amongst these agencies and often regulations go unenforced. Additionally, many of the regulations are designed to give the industry the authority to self-monitor and self-report, a system proved inadequate after the industry’s failure to maintain their nets led to the catastrophic Cypress Island collapse in August 2017. Considering the major disincentive to turn themselves in for failure to comply, many of these regulations go unenforced and are ineffective. 

Myth 3: Washington’s industrial-scale net pen industry is transparent and works cooperatively with government officials and scientists to minimize its environmental impact. 

Washington’s insufficient regulatory regime does not demand transparency. Rather, its loose set of recommendations gives the net pen industry tremendous power to self-monitor and requires little cooperation with state agencies. While the State has the authority to test the fish for disease or parasites and access dead fish when there is a viral outbreak, these activities require the company's permission. In the past when there have been viral outbreaks, this system has created an environment that has hindered the State from exercising their statutory authority. Additionally, this system allows the industry to hide behind the veil of "proprietary information," which means the public may never have the ability to learn about incidents. 

The environmental impact of this flawed regulatory system is exacerbated by the fact that the net pen industry has never complied with the State's existing guidelines for environmental responsibility. For example, the industry has never followed recommendations about limiting production in an area as well as recommendations for siting net pens near marine sanctuaries or in endangered species habitat. Those recommendations and guidelines were put in place to protect state trust resources and to limit the amount of unfiltered pollution discharged into a given marine area, but the industry chooses to ignore these guidelines.

Myth 4: Atlantic salmon net pens have been operating safely in Puget Sound for decades.

We do not know the total impact of Atlantic salmon net pens in Puget Sound because of Washington’s lax regulations and the industry’s lack of transparency. However, we do know these net pens have a poor safety record that includes thousands of escaped Atlantic salmon, the use of chemicals to try to control sea lice, a major viral outbreak, and decades of pollution.

The most well-known net pen issue in Washington occurred back in 2012 when a lethal IHNV (infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus) outbreak spread to three net pens in the Sound killing over two million pounds of Atlantic salmon and creating an unprecedented viral threat to Puget Sound’s wild salmon and steelhead. To this day, we still do not know the full impact of this outbreak because Washington's regulatory process is so insufficient that net pen operators were able to prevent the government’s disease experts from monitoring their pens during the entire five-month epidemic. 

Myth 5: Atlantic salmon and other industrial net pens pose a minimal risk to wild salmon populations.

High-density open water net pens are essentially breeding grounds for infection, disease, and parasites that can easily spread to wild salmon and steelhead. Pathogens in the marine environment are even more volatile, and there is no way to contain or prevent the spread of these infections in an open, liquid environment. Making matters worse, many of Washington’s existing and proposed net pens are located right in the path of out-migrating juvenile salmon, which are particularly vulnerable to these lethal infections and parasites like sea lice. In addition to impacting the immediate vicinity of the net pens, the tides and currents in Puget Sound carry parasites, pathogens, and pollution far afield. 

Myth 6: The net pen industry is financially responsible for its environmental impact.

A major benefit of open-water net pens for the salmon farming industry is that many of the environmental costs are externalized and placed on the backs of the public. As opposed to closed containment land-based systems, which responsibly process and dispose of their waste, open-water net pens use the public's water as a free dumping ground. The millions of pounds of untreated fecal waste Washington's existing Atlantic salmon net pens create and release into the Sound is equivalent to that of a small city's. This pollution and its externalized costs are hindering Puget Sound recovery efforts, an issue that may soon become more problematic because critical federal funding for Puget Sound restoration is on the chopping block in our nation's capital.

Myth 7: Expansion of net pens will be a big economic boon and job creator for Washington.

The economic costs of letting an international net pen conglomerate expand this destructive industry in Washington far outweigh the economic benefits. The net pen industry has a long history of hiring a bare minimum of employees and has been criticized around the globe for failing to deliver on its jobs creation promises. Plus, there are no requirements for this industry to hire Washingtonians, and the fees structure for operating in Washington waters generates very little revenue for the state. When you compare that minimal benefit to the enormous economic, recreational, and ecological costs of these net pens, it is clear that Atlantic salmon net pens are a bad deal for Washingtonians.  

Myth 8: Washington is fortunate that the industrial net pen industry wants to expand its operation in the state’s waters.  

While the industrial net pen industry wants us to believe that turning Puget Sound into an epicenter of Atlantic salmon and other net pens is great for Washington, nothing could be further from the truth. As explained above, the economic, recreational, and ecological costs of net pens far outweigh the minimal benefits. California, Oregon, and Alaska have all come to this conclusion and either banned or excluded Atlantic salmon net pens from operating in their states years ago in order to protect their native fish and the health of their waters.  

Myth 9: Atlantic salmon net pens in Washington will be an invaluable food source for Washingtonians.  

It is hard to get a complete grasp on these numbers because they are deemed “proprietary” by the net pen industry and are therefore not publicly available. However, we know that very little of the Atlantic salmon currently produced in Puget Sound is consumed by Washingtonians and that stores like PCC Markets refuse to sell these fish. Through their purchasing power, Washingtonians have made it clear that they far prefer the state's wild Pacific salmon over the state's farmed Atlantic salmon. There is no reason to believe that fact will change if the net pen industry expands its operation in Washington. 

Myth 10: Open water net pens are the only option for farmed fish production in Washington because land-based, closed containment aquaculture systems are not economically viable. 

The Atlantic salmon net pen industry claims that the only economically feasible way to meet rising consumer demand for salmon is open-water net pens, but that is not true. This argument misrepresents the potential of alternatives like land-based aquaculture, and it also ignores the externalized costs of marine net pens, costs that are placed solely on the shoulders of the public. More environmentally responsible land-based aquaculture systems can lift that cost off the shoulders of the public, but this industry can only flourish with the promise of government commitment and long-term stability.

Want to dive deeper?

Here are a few links that will allow you to dive deeper into the issues with Atlantic salmon and other net Pens and why they are a problem for our sound, Our Salmon, and our future.

Chemical use in salmon aquaculture: A review of current practices and possible environmental effects

Prediction of benthic impact of salmon net pens based on the balance of benthic oxygen supply and demand

Review of Potential Impacts of Atlantic Salmon Culture on Puget Sound Chinook Salmon and Hood Canal Summer-Run Chum Salmon Evolutionarily Significant Units

Emerging viral diseases of fish and shrimp

What is a net pen? An easy to read cross section detailing the environmental impacts of Atlantic salmon net pens.

Fugitive Salmon: Assessing the Risks of Escaped Fish from Net-Pen Aquaculture

Occupancy dynamics of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Canadian Pacific coastal salmon streams: implications for sustained invasions

Ecosystem and Public Health Risks From Nearshore and Offshore Finish Aquaculture - Johns Hopkins

Assessment of the Risk of Invasion of National Forest Streams by Farmed Atlantic salmon

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