After 40 years, the Net Pen Industry is Pulling Up Anchors, Towing Away Their Net Pens, & Leaving Puget Sound Forever
Commissioner Hilary Franz Recognized Again as a Leader in Wild Salmon Recovery for Zero-Discharge Aquaculture Commitment
For Immediate Release
PDF Version
Media Contacts:
Emma Helverson, Executive Director, Wild Fish Conservancy, 484-788-1174, emma@wildfishconservancy.org
Kurt Beardslee, Director of Special Projects, Wild Fish Conservancy, 206-310-9301, kurt@wildfishconsrvancy.org
April 11, 2023— Washington State is once again raising the bar for governments and companies around the world when it comes to protecting aquatic ecosystems from the impacts of salmon aquaculture. In a press release this morning, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz announced the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has formally signed a new partnership agreement with Nova Scotia-based Sustainable Blue to explore opportunities for bringing the company’s proven Zero-Discharge Recirculating Aquaculture System (ZRAS) to Washington state as an alternative to open water net pens.
The letter of intent describes DNR’s interest in exploring sustainable models of ‘alternative aquaculture’ defined in the agreement in part as “aquaculture practices which do not discharge to an aquatic environment.” Through the agreement, DNR and Sustainable Blue commit to exploring possible locations for such a future facility on upland sites managed by the state with the goal of eventually negotiating a lease.
“Commissioner Franz has not only taken bold action to protect the environment by banning commercial open water net pen aquaculture, but through this new commitment to zero-discharge, land-based aquaculture systems she is advancing a market-based solution that will add-value and jobs to our local economy without compromising our wild salmon and the health of Puget Sound,” says Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “We applaud Commissioner Franz for her vision and continued leadership that is helping push the global aquaculture industry to invest and transition to the most sustainable and ecologically-safe alternatives that exist.”
The growing scientific record and public awareness of environmental harm caused by open water marine net pen aquaculture is driving a global transition to land-based alternatives. While land-based facilities can reduce some of this harm, recirculating or flow-through systems that draw and discharge substantial amounts of water from the environment pose many of the same pollution, parasite, and pathogen risks to wild salmon and their ecosystems as open water net pens. These facilities also introduce new risks associated with water intake, such as bycatch or entrainment of aquatic organisms.
In contrast, the ZRAS technology developed by Sustainable Blue re-uses 100% of its water and has zero discharge of waste material or effluent into local waterways or communities. The technology filters out all waste which is converted into a biogas to generate energy using an anaerobic digester. This technology, already in operation and sending fish to market in Canada, eliminates all major risks associated with conventional aquaculture practices to wild salmon and aquatic ecosystems.
“Over the last year, we have seen various risky proposals from corporations targeting governments in the Pacific Northwest for massive land-based facilities seeking to draw and discharge millions of gallons of marine waters every day, while relying on new technologies for treating pathogens and waste that have never been tested or proven,” says Helverson. “The global transition away from net pens and toward land-based alternatives is just beginning and it’s imperative that governments are setting the highest standards possible for this next phase of the industry. Through this new agreement, Commissioner Franz is sending a strong message that salmon aquaculture does not have to come at the expense of the public’s natural resources.”
The partnership comes on the heels of Commissioner Franz’s widely celebrated November announcement denying Cooke Aquaculture’s request for new net pen leases and issuing a new executive order prohibiting commercial marine net pen aquaculture in state-managed marine waters. DNR recently confirmed Cooke has removed all remaining farmed fish from their Puget Sound net pens and work to permanently remove the company’s facilities is currently underway. This marks the first time in 40 years this industry has ceased to operate in Washington public waters, finally allowing these heavily polluted and degraded sites the opportunity to naturally restore as part of the largest passive restoration project in Washington’s history.
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Wild Fish Conservancy is a conservation ecology organization based in Washington state and dedicated to conservation, protection, and restoration of the Northwest’s wild fish and the ecosystems they depend on.
wildfishconservancy.org
Wild Fish Conservancy facilitates the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign.
A Monumental Victory for Wild Salmon, Orcas, and the Health of Puget Sound
For Immediate Release
PDF Version
Media Contacts:
Emma Helverson, Executive Director, Wild Fish Conservancy, 484-788-1174, emma@wildfishconservancy.org
Kurt Beardslee, Director of Special Projects, Wild Fish Conservancy, 206-310-9301, kurt@wildfishconservancy.org
November 18th, 2022— Today, Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz made history when she announced a new groundbreaking executive order that will prohibit commercial net pen aquaculture in Washington state marine waters.
This new policy was announced earlier today by Commissioner Franz at a press conference on Bainbridge Island overlooking the Rich Passage net pens alongside leaders from Wild Fish Conservancy and Suquamish Tribe. The news comes on the heels of another long-awaited and widely supported decision announced earlier this week by Commissioner Franz that DNR has refused new decade-long leases to global seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture to continue operating commercial net pens in Puget Sound.
“After the incredible news announced earlier this week, it is almost impossible to believe we are now celebrating an even bigger, groundbreaking victory for our wild salmon, orcas, and the health of Puget Sound,” said Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “By denying new leases to Cooke and bringing forward this comprehensive, bold new policy to prevent commercial net pens from ever operating in Washington marine waters again, Commissioner Franz is ensuring Puget Sound will be protected, not just now, but far into the future for the benefit of generations to come.”
Together, the lease denial and executive order will require Cooke to remove all of their net pen facilities from Puget Sound before the end of year, marking the end of the commercial net pen industry that has operated in Washington state for over 40 years. The benefits of these actions for the recovery of wild fish, water quality, and the greater health of Puget Sound cannot be overstated. Immediately, this action will cease chronic untreated pollution that has been discharged daily at these aquatic sites for over forty years. Finally, these heavily polluted and degraded sites will have the opportunity to heal and begin the process of natural restoration as part of the largest passive restoration project in Washington's history.
The decision will also eliminate many major risk factors that harm the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead, including ending the risk of exposure to viruses, parasites, and diseases that are amplified and spread at unnatural levels by massive densities of farmed fish and the risk of future catastrophic escape events in which farmed fish could compete with, attempt to interbreed, or spread pathogens to threatened and endangered wild fish.
DNR’s decision will also restore the public and Tribal access to over 130 acres of Puget Sound that have been restricted by this industry for over forty years. More broadly, Washington’s decision will unite the entire U.S. Pacific Coast in excluding this industry from marine waters. Combined with Canada's recent commitment to transition open water net pens out of British Columbia waters, this decision also has the potential to eliminate a major limiting factor to wild Pacific salmon recovery at a coastwide, international scale.
“After the news earlier this week, we’ve heard from colleagues all around the world in places like Chile, Tasmania, Scotland, and so many others working to protect their own public waters from the environmental harm of commercial net pen aquaculture,” says Helverson. “Today’s historic decision is setting a new standard that will serve as a model and rallying cry to bolster the efforts of communities and governments around the world working toward this same end and we stand committed to leveraging our massive success to support their efforts.”
Cooke is the same company found at fault for the catastrophic 2017 Cypress Island net pen collapse that released over 260,000 nonnative and viral-infected Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. Cooke purchased all of Washington’s net pen facilities in 2016 with plans to expand exponentially in Washington waters.
In response to this expansion plan, Wild Fish Conservancy launched the Our Sound, Our Salmon (OSOS) campaign in April 2017 to raise public awareness about the environmental impacts of commercial net pen aquaculture. In 2018, a coalition of over 10,000 individuals and hundreds of businesses and organizations under the banner of OSOS, worked in concert with Tribal efforts, to advocate for Washington’s landmark law banning nonnative Atlantic salmon aquaculture.
In July 2020, in response to Cooke avoiding the ban by transitioning to native species, the OSOS campaign launched a new initiative, Taking Back Our Sound, with the goal of preventing Cooke from receiving new leases. Through this effort, 9,000 individuals and 127 business and organizations called on DNR’s Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz through a petition and direct actions, which included a Bainbridge Island city resolution, to deny new leases to Cooke and to restore Puget Sound for the benefit and use of all. In making her decision over Cooke’s lease request, DNR was required by statute to issue a decision in the best interest of the public.
“It’s clear this victory for wild salmon, orcas, and Puget Sound belongs to no one person or group. Without the separate actions of thousands of individuals, Washington’s Tribal Nations, businesses, organizations, chefs, fishing groups, scientists, elected officials, and so many others working together over the last five years, this would never have been possible,” says Helverson. “It is truly inspiring to see what is possible when the public unifies their voices and works together with the law and science on their side toward the shared goal of a healthier Puget Sound.”
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Wild Fish Conservancy is a conservation ecology organization based in Washington state and dedicated to conservation, protection, and restoration of the Northwest’s wild fish and the ecosystems they depend on. wildfishconservancy.org
Our Sound, Our Salmon is a public outreach campaign launched in 2017 and facilitated by Wild Fish Conservancy to raise awareness of the harm caused by commercial net pen aquaculture and to lead the public in taking action to protect Puget Sound from this industry. Learn more at oursound-oursalmon.org
DNR Denies New Net Pen Leases In Historic Victory for Wild Salmon, Orcas, & the Health of Puget Sound
Today, we are beyond thrilled to share a massive environmental victory for wild salmon, orcas, and the health of Puget Sound that we have all worked so hard to achieve.
Over the past five years, through the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign and coalition, we've been fighting together tooth and nail in the Courts, the legislature, and through direct appeals to state officials, calling for an end to the dangerous commercial net pen industry that threatens the health of Puget Sound.
Now, thanks to the unwavering advocacy of our broad-based coalition, Tribal Nations, elected officials, global partners, and so many others— WE DID IT!
Washington state has finally taken bold action to end commercial net pen aquaculture in Puget Sound.
Yesterday, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and her staff at the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) made a groundbreaking announcement that they will no longer lease our public waters to Cooke Aquaculture. Yesterday, DNR delivered a letter to the company's executives notifying them that DNR denied their applications for new 12-year leases to operate net pens in Puget Sound. Cooke now has until December 14th to harvest any remaining fish and completely remove all of their facilities and debris from our public waters.
As the sole commercial net pen operator in Washington, this historic and monumental decision will effectively eliminate this industry from Puget Sound by the end of the year. In case it hasn't sunk in yet, it's finally time to say goodbye to Cooke Aquaculture.
“Since the catastrophic Cypress Island net pen collapse in 2017, I have stood tall to defend the waters of Puget Sound. This effort began by terminating finfish net pen operations due to lease violations. Despite years of litigation – and a company that has fought us every step of the way – we are now able to deny lease renewals for the remaining net pen sites. Today, we are returning our waters to wild fish and natural habitat. Today, we are freeing Puget Sound of enclosed cages.
This is a critical step to support our waters, fishermen, tribes, and the native salmon that we are so ferociously fighting to save.”
The importance of this decision for wild fish, water quality, and the greater health of Puget Sound cannot be overstated. Immediately, this action will cease the chronic untreated pollution that has been discharged every single day by this industry over the past thirty years. Finally, these heavily polluted and degraded sites will have the opportunity to heal and begin the process of natural restoration as part of the largest passive restoration project in Washington's history.
Wild fish will migrate freely through Puget Sound without the risk of exposure to viruses, parasites, and diseases amplified and spread at unnatural levels by massive densities of farmed fish, and Washington will never face the risk of another catastrophic net pen collapse ever again.
We also cannot emphasize enough the importance of this dfor the public's use and enjoyment of Puget Sound. For the first time in three decades, DNR’s decision will restore the public and Tribal access to over 130 acres of Puget Sound that have been restricted and degraded by this industry for far too long.
Beyond Washington, Commissioner Franz's decision is finally uniting the entire U.S. Pacific Coast in excluding this industry from marine waters. Combined with Canada's recent commitment to transition this same industry out of British Columbia's marine waters, this decision has the potential to eliminate a major limiting factor to wild Pacific salmon recovery at a coastwide and international scale.
Washington's decision to end commercial salmon aquaculture will also serve as an important model that will be leveraged by communities and governments around the world working toward the same goal in their public waters. Wild Fish Conservancy is proud to be a member of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance, a global alliance of organizations working together to protect marine ecosystems around the world from the commercial net pen industry.
All and all, today's massive environmental victory demonstrates what is possible when the public unifies their voices and works together with the law and science on their side toward the shared goal of a healthier Puget Sound.
Our Sound, Our Salmon Flotilla Protest, October 2017
THE FIRST OF MANY CELEBRATIONS
Even more exciting still, on Friday, Commissioner Franz has scheduled a press conference where she will announce DNR is setting new state policy to ensure the protection of Puget Sound into the future. The news will be delivered at 11:00 am on Bainbridge Island overlooking the net pens in Rich Passage on the very same beach where we held the Our Sound, Our Salmon flotilla protest back in 2017. Wild Fish Conservancy is honored to participate in this historic event alongside Commissioner Franz and Tribal Nations, and we encourage you to come join us to celebrate this major announcement. We'll send out more information later this week with details for those interested in joining for the event.
Over the last two years of calling on Commissioner Franz to make the right decision for wild salmon, orcas, tribal treaty rights, and the health of Puget sound, her recent decision demonstrates she heard our voices loud and clear. We could not be more grateful to Commissioner Franz and her team for their dedication and commitment to protecting the health of Puget Sound for current and future generations. In the days to come, we'll be reaching out with opportunities to thank Commissioner Franz for making this monumental environmental success possible.
But even as we celebrate Commissioner Franz, it's clear that this victory for wild salmon, orcas, and Puget Sound belongs to no one person or group. Without the actions of thousands of individuals, Washington’s Tribal Nations, businesses, organizations, chefs, fishing groups, scientists, elected officials, moms and dads, and others working together over so many years, this victory would never have been possible.
Working together, we took back Puget Sound.
Thank you to the nearly 10,000 individuals and 130 businesses and organizations supporting the Taking Back Our Sound petition to Commissioner Hilary Franz.
Trout Unlimited California
Frosty Hollow Ecological Restoration
Harbor Porpoise Project
Fraser Valley Extinction Rebellion
Friends of Miller Peninsula State Park
Brightside Charitable Foundation
Bamboo Rod Works
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Assn.
Baja Boat Works LLC
Alala Farm
Ecoservices
Falcon Mountain Services
Bell Hill Properties
Rich Passage Estates Homeowners’ Association
Salmon Fishers Back
Wild Whales Vancouver
Seattle Green Spaces Coalition
Care Hospital Inc
Echelon Consulting
Great Lakes Chapter
Hailey Rohan, Realtor / Land Agent
Inland Waters Landscape Services
Keystone Climbing Consultants
Inside Passage Seeds
Miklian’s Outdoor Adventures
Minus Plus
Mark Weick M. Ed. LMHC
Quoted PR
Kunnen Design/Build Inc
Chasing Daylight LLC
On Sacred Ground
Sunde & Co., LLC
Supan Builders
Technical Installation Team LLC
C&S Distribution
Westwind Farm
Greater Realty Inc.
Heron Reach Services
Alan Quigley Designs
North Cascades Conservation Council
Collaborative Fisheries Associates LLC
Wildlife Forever Fund
Collaborative Fisheries Associate LLC
Eagle Outdoor Media
Pacific Home and Garden
CGA Commerce, LLC
Lotus Films
In addition to our efforts to protect Puget Sound from commercial salmon farms in Washington state, Our Sound, Our Salmon founder Wild Fish Conservancy is a proud member of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance, an international coalition of groups working around the world to advocate for an end to open water net pen aquaculture over concerns for the harmful impacts on local ecosystems and communities.
Similar to Cooke Aquaculture's takeover of Washington state's net pen industry in 2016, the company recently moved to acquire the Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal, and is also working to take over and expand net pen operations in Iceland, Scotland, and other regions around the world.
Even as Washington state moves ever closer toward removing Cooke and this industry from Puget Sound, WFC is now working to support our colleagues in Tasmania and around the world to help raise awareness of Cooke's history of environmental harm and violations in regions like Puget Sound.
Read the article that went live this week in Australia to learn more about this global effort to protect Tasmanian public waters from this dangerous industry.
Stay tuned for more updates on this collaborative work and information on how you can support this global effort to protect oceans and ecosystems worldwide from this dangerous industry.
On November 10th, every lease that authorizes commercial net pens to operate in Puget Sound will have expired. Without new leases, Washington's sole net pen operator, Cooke Aquaculture, will be required to pack up and remove their net pens from Puget Sound, effectively eliminating this industry in Washington. The expiration of these leases offers Washington a once-in-a-decade opportunity to take bold action to protect Puget Sound and join governments around the world in abandoning this dangerous and antiquated industry.
Further elevating the urgency and importance of this exact moment is that after four years and countless appeals, every single lawsuit Cooke Aquaculture has waged against the state has been dismissed or is quickly coming to a close. The conclusion of this litigation eliminates all remaining legal leverage Cooke could wield in a last-ditch effort to pressure the state into granting the company new leases that would secure their future in our public waters for the next decade or longer.
It is your unwavering dedication and support that made it possible to reach this critical moment and with only days left, we're calling on you to help finish this fight for the health of Puget Sound.
HILARY FRANZ'S MONUMENTAL DECISION
With the clock counting down to November 10th when every net pen lease in Washington will have expired, the future of the commercial net pen industry and the health of Puget Sound lies solely in the hands of Washington's Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. In the coming days, Commissioner Franz will need to make a monumental decision whether to give in to pressure from Cooke Aquaculture to issue new 12-year leases for net pen aquaculture or calls from the public to restore Puget Sound for the benefit and use of all.
Commissioner Franz has a strong record when it comes to holding the net pen industry accountable. She led the investigation finding Cooke at fault for the catastrophic Cypress Island net pen collapse, terminated half of the company's leases following that event, and refused to concede or compromise the public's natural resources when defending Washington from four years of Cooke's meritless lawsuits.
Photo by Mike Ritter under license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
By statute, Commissioner Franz is required to make a decision that is in the best interest of the public. Earlier this year, we delivered a nearly 200-page Taking Back Our Sound petition on behalf of nearly 10,000 individuals and over 100 businesses and organizations all calling on Commission Franz to restore Puget Sound for the public’s benefit and use by all. Through emails and letters, Commissioner Franz heard directly from individuals, groups, and elected officials throughout the northwest and even international advocates urging the importance of Washington's decision for the future of this industry in communities worldwide.
These efforts are just one example of the countless milestones and accomplishments we've celebrated and made possible together since we launched the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign five years ago to protect wild salmon, killer whales, and the health of Puget Sound from this dangerous industry. All of these efforts will now culminate in Commissioner Franz's pivotal decision.
But this fight isn't over and Cooke Aquaculture is a billion-dollar corporation actively fighting tooth and nail to continue using our public waters to profit at the expense of the health of Puget Sound. If we don't speak out now, we risk the threat of another decade of chronic pollution, viral outbreaks, and massive escape events. With only days until Cooke's leases are expired, this is your last chance to fight for the future health of Puget Sound.
Working Together to Protect Puget Sound
For over two decades, Wild Fish Conservancy has been watchdogging the industry, advancing our region's scientific understanding of the risks net pens pose, and working with colleagues around the world to bring an end to this practice in public waters.
Your support makes it possible for us to stand up and react quickly to the commercial net pen aquaculture industry as we work to end this practice in Puget Sound and protect our public waters for benefit of all.
a discussion with Journalists Douglas Frantz & Catherine Collins on their new book ‘Salmon Wars: The Dark Underbelly of Our Favorite Fish’
DATE & TIME
Monday July 25th, 2022
6 pm PDT | 9 pm EST
VIRTUAL EVENT HOSTED BY
Elliot Bay Book Company, elliottbaybookcompany.com
The event is FREE to attend. Click below to register and receive a Zoom link to join the event or to purchase a hardcopy of ‘Salmon Wars’ from Elliott Bay Book Company.
Interested in purchasing ‘Salmon Wars’ as an ebook or audiobook?
EVENT INFORMATION
You’re invited! Next week, Our Sound, Our Salmon founder Wild Fish Conservancy and Elliott Bay Book Company are leading a discussion with award-winning journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, authors of the newly published book, ‘Salmon Wars: The Dark Underbelly of Our Favorite Fish’; a deep dive into the murky waters of the international salmon farming industry.
Frantz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, and Collins, a former private investigator, began work on this book after learning about the environmental danger of ocean salmon farming at a public meeting near their home in Nova Scotia. Through stories, fact-based research, and previously undisclosed documents, Frantz and Collins’ newest book does an exceptional job illustrating the ecological harm caused by commercial open water net pen aquaculture, demonstrating the systemic failure of governments around the world to safely regulate this industry, and exposing industry propaganda and efforts to discredit critics and undermine environmentalists.
Global seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture is prominently featured throughout the book as a case study for the industry, highlighting the company’s poor environmental record throughout the world. The book devotes several chapters to Cooke’s history of violations here in Washington State, including the catastrophic Cypress Island collapse event that released 260,000 nonnative, viral-infected fish into Puget Sound in 2017.
Monday’s discussion on the book will be led by Wild Fish Conservancy’s co-founder Kurt Beardslee who was interviewed for the book and had the opportunity to share the history of this harmful industry in Washington State, including WFC’s lawsuit holding Cooke accountable for $2.75 million in Clean Water Act Violations, Washington’s landmark law banning nonnative finfish aquaculture, and the inspiring and effective social movement being led by the public to protect Puget Sound and end this harmful practice in our public waters.
We could not be more thankful to Doug and Catherine for this inspiring, well-researched, and refreshingly honest book sharing stories from communities around the world fighting tooth and nail to protect their marine ecosystems from this dangerous industry. The book, published last week, is already receiving critical acclaim, including being nominated by Bloomberg as a top 10 best book for your summer reading list. ‘Salmon Wars’ will undoubtedly play a major role in raising awareness about the alarming truths underpinning the salmon farming industry, galvanizing global communities to get involved in local efforts to protect their homewaters, and will help guide the public to make healthier and environmental sound consumer choices.
We would encourage all our supporters to consider attending this upcoming event and to share information about this book with others in your community who care about wild fish and the health of our oceans.
Join WFC and Elliott Bay Book Company next Monday July 25th at 6 pm PST (9 pm EST) for a virtual discussion with Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins by registering for this free event below.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins have written books together about topics ranging from Disney’s planned utopia in Florida and the Holocaust at sea to nuclear weapons trafficking. None was more important than Salmon Wars, an urgent plea for consumers and governments to respond to the health and environmental consequences resulting from the industrialization of Atlantic salmon.
Frantz spent 37 years as a newspaper editor and reporter, sharing a Pulitzer Prize at The New York Times and serving as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. After leaving journalism, he was chief investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Assistant Secretary of State in the Obama administration, and Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Collins was a reporter and prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and contributed to The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Upon leaving her newspaper career, she became a private investigator specializing in international financial fraud and corruption.
They began work on Salmon Wars in January 2020 after hearing about the environmental dangers of salmon farming at a public meeting near their home in Nova Scotia. In two years of intensive research that followed, they uncovered new documents illustrating the danger posed by open-net salmon farms to wild salmon and other marine life. They peeled away the industry propaganda to disclose campaigns to discredit critics and undermine environmentalists. They interviewed scientists and medical practitioners who detailed the health risks from eating farmed salmon, particularly for children and pregnant women. And, in a hopeful development, they met people trying to raise salmon in sustainable, environmentally friendly ways on land. Salmon Wars is about more than just a fish. It is about how the choices we make affect our health and the health of our oceans.
“Erin Brockovich meets Wicked Tuna in this searing exposé…. This stellar investigation is the rare one that has the power to impact policymakers and consumers alike.”
“We have been growing crops unsustainably on the land for at least 100 years. Now we are making the same mistakes with agriculture in our oceans. The criminal multinational fishing corporations and their complicit politicians are actively harming the marine environment and pushing their toxic product to unaware consumers. After reading Salmon Wars, I doubt you will choose to eat net pen farmed salmon again.”
“Salmon Wars is a deep dive into the damage caused by current fish-farming methods to ocean environments, wild fish and their habitats, and the farmed fish themselves. It is also an account of the dismal failure of governments to stop such practices. Salmon farming needs reform. Until it gets it, read this book, and you will never eat farmed salmon again.”
BREAKING NEWS
Canadian Government Will Phase Out All Open Water Net Pens from British Columbia
In our last news post, we shared two pending major decisions being made by Washington State’s Commissioner of Public Lands and Canada’s Minister of Fisheries that will determine the fate of the industry in Washington and British Columbia and possible throughout the Pacific Coast.
We are thrilled to share incredible and historic news! In a press release yesterday, Canada's Minister of Fisheries Joyce Murray announced that the Canadian government is taking bold action to phase out all open net pen aquaculture in British Columbia’s coastal waters.
In the coming weeks, the Canadian government is planning to share a draft framework that will guide this transition away from open net pen salmon aquaculture. Between now and the spring 2023, Minister Murray's office will consult with local governments, First Nations, industry, and the public in each region to guide the development of the final transition plans for these facilities.
In the meantime, Canada has denied the renewal of 19 licenses in the Discovery Islands and is only issuing temporary 2-year license renewals for the rest of the coast. Two years is less time than a full grow out cycle for Atlantic salmon, signaling the government's likely intent is for operators to grow out what fish remain ahead of the phase out, not to plant new fish.
Wild juvenile salmon infected with sea lice during a devastating coastwide outbreak in the spring of 2020. These outbreaks were most severe in the Discovery Island region where independent biologists reported 97% of all fish sampled were infected with potentially lethal levels of sea lice. In 2020, Canadian prohibited restocking of 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. These facilities are vacant today and wild salmon migrating through that region are free of sea lice for the first time since sea lice research began in that region in 2005. Yesterday’s decision confirmed no new leases for these 19 facilities will be granted.
The Minister’s announcement included a mandate for the transition to occur in a manner that will prioritize wild salmon, the environment, and the economy, and stated a commitment to “establish[ing] Canada as a world leader for the next-generation aquaculture industry.” Meeting all of these commitments will require a total transition out of public waters to sustainable land-based, closed-containment systems. Companies like Nova Scotia’s Sustainable Blue already operating throughout the US and Canada are working models demonstrating land-based facilities can be ecologically, economically, and socially viable.
As a result of Canada’s major decision, Washington state is now the only jurisdiction on the entire North Pacific Coast that has not committed to ending or banning this practice in public waters.
All eyes have now turned toward Washington state two remaining leases that authorize the industry to operate will expire in 2022 after decade long tenures. Commissioner Franz’s upcoming decision expected any day over whether or not to issue new leases to Cooke Aquaculture is now more important than ever, as it would unite the coast in eliminating this major and significant risk to wild salmon and marine health.
Tell Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz:
Stop Leasing Our Public Waters for Commercial Net Pen Aquaculture and Restore Puget Sound for the Benefit and Use of All
Press Release
Legal Action Taken to Protect Threatened and Endangered Species from Industrial Finfish Aquaculture Operations
For Immediate Release
June, 23, 2022
Contact: Meredith Stevenson, 574-309-5620, mstevenson@centerforfoodsafety.org
SAN FRANCISCO—Yesterday, Center for Food Safety (CFS) and a coalition of marine conservation organizations, including trade groups, and the Quinault Indian Nation filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps for its failure to consider impacts to threatened and endangered species when it authorized construction of offshore finfish aquaculture facilities around the country. Industrial finfish aquaculture poses threats to marine ecosystems and endangered whales, salmon, sea turtles, and many other imperiled species, as well as to traditional fishing economies, Tribal Nations’ food security, and the public.
“Offshore industrial aquaculture is essentially factory farming of the sea because it has so many of the same problems we see with land-based factory farms. Large-scale aquaculture facilities wreak havoc on communities and the environment with their massive amount of waste and through their use of antibiotics, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals,” said Jenny Loda, staff attorney at CFS. “Despite acknowledging these threats, the Army Corps ignored its duty to examine how these impacts may harm
threatened and endangered species and contribute to their extinction risk.”
Following a Trump-era Executive Order pressing for rapid advancement and expansion of marine aquaculture facilities, the Army Corps issued a nationwide permit for construction of finfish aquaculture facilities in state and federal waters during the last few days of the Trump administration. In so doing, the Corps skirted much of the required environmental review, including its requirement to ensure that authorization of these facilities does not jeopardize the existence of imperiled species protected under
the Endangered Species Act. The nationwide permit authorizing construction of finfish aquaculture facilities has so far been adopted by Army Corps districts in California, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Virginia.
“In granting this far-reaching permit, the Corps failed to comprehensively evaluate even the most obvious and well-established harms that open water commercial net pen pose,” said Emma Helverson, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “This is a reckless and misguided approach to managing species at risk of extinction and directly undermines efforts by local governments, Tribal Nations, and communities throughout the U.S. working tirelessly to protect and restore threatened and endangered species and their habitats.”
“We are very concerned about the use of Corps’ nationwide permit to push forward rapid development of industrial offshore finfish farming,” said Marianne Cufone, executive director of Recirculating Farms. “Each area of the marine environment is unique, and every industrial facility should be reviewed in detail, not fast tracked through a streamlined permit process.”
In addition to the excess nutrients and toxic chemicals associated with industrial finfish aquaculture, the facilities themselves threaten endangered species and other wildlife who may become entangled in the nets or lines or may be disturbed by their lights and noise pollution. Wild fish like endangered salmon are particularly at risk when farmed fish inevitably escape from aquaculture facilities. Escaped fish may outcompete wild fish for food and mates, and transfer diseases, viruses, and parasites to wild populations.
“Open ocean finfish aquaculture so far on the West Coast has been a failure, resulting in massive pollution, disease and parasite problems,” said Mike Conroy, executive director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, a commercial fishing industry group. “The Corps’ current defective and open-ended permit process will only give us more of the same,” Conroy added.
Rather than thoroughly considering how these potential harms may impact threatened and endangered species, the Corps relied on future analyses of impacts at the project-level once a facility is proposed. However, this does not exempt the Corps from considering the potential impacts of its nationwide authorization as a whole and the cumulative impacts all the potential future facilities taken together will have on endangered species—especially considering the vast ranges of some of the wildlife at issue like endangered whales, sea birds, and sea turtles. Relying on individual evaluations for facilities later down the line creates impermissible piecemeal decision-making that threatens the future survival of endangered species.
“While LA Waterkeeper does not oppose all aquaculture or mariculture activities, we have significant concerns with the streamlined general permit, which we believe will lead to the authorization of finfish aquaculture facilities along the Los Angeles coast, including near several Marine Protected Areas,” said Barak Kamelgard, staff attorney at LA Waterkeeper. “With the Corps failing to consider the adverse impacts of such operations on our diverse marine ecosystems, the risk of biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and other harms to marine life is too great.”
“California’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were meticulously planned to bolster ecosystem health, improve the resilience of fisheries, and give marine life a chance to rebound from habitat degradation and overfishing,” said Patrick McDonough, senior attorney at San Diego Coastkeeper. “Placing disruptive offshore fish farms near existing MPAs in Southern California will undermine the impact of California’s carefully crafted MPA network.”
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The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are CFS, Don’t Cage Our Oceans Coalition, Wild Fish Conservancy, Quinault Indian Nation, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, San Diego Coastkeeper, Institute for Fisheries Resources / Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Recirculating Farms Coalition. All plaintiffs are represented by counsel from Center for Food Safety.
Photo by Tavish Campabell, tavishcampbell.ca
In the coming weeks, Canada’s Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray and Washington State’s Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz are both expected to announce major decisions that will determine the future of commercial net pen aquaculture along the Pacific Northwest Coast.
A new analysis released by NOAA Fisheries confirms commercial marine net pens operating in Puget Sound are harming threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead, and other protected fish, as well as their critical habitats.
The comprehensive new analysis released in February, called a biological opinion, marks the first-time that federal agencies have ever conducted this type of rigorous formal consultation in the three decades that commercial net pens have operated in Washington waters. The findings represent an important and major shift from the federal agency’s former expert opinion that commercial net pens operating in Puget Sound are unlikely to harm any species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Under the Endangered Species Act, a biological opinion evaluates the extent of harm a proposed action will have on threatened or endangered species and whether such harm could jeopardize the continued existence of the species. Biological opinions also include conditions for monitoring and reducing harmful impacts to protected species.
The Findings
In the new biological opinion, NOAA Fisheries concludes that while commercial net pen aquaculture is unlikely to cause jeopardy, or in other words, unlikely to be the single cause of extinction for any ESA-listed population, these operations are adversely affecting several of Puget Sound’s threatened and endangered wild fish species and harming their critical habitats. The imperiled species NOAA found are likely to be harmed by the impacts of commercial net pens, include Chinook salmon, steelhead, Hood canal summer-run chum salmon, yelloweye rockfish, and bocaccio rockfish.
The analysis found this harm (that the Endangered Species Act refers to as ‘take’) is reasonably and likely to occur through a variety of mechanisms, including but not limited to:
degraded water quality from discharged fish waste and other pollutants
reducing foraging production for juvenile and adult salmonids and other protected fish due to bio-deposits and contaminants
bycatch of ESA-listed fish during harvest of farmed fish
predation of ESA-listed fish by farmed fish in net pens
competition and predation of ESA-listed fish in marine and freshwater ecosystems when farmed fish escape
reduced reproductive success from interbreeding when farmed fish escape
bycatch of wild fish during attempts to recover escaped farmed fish
reduced fitness and survival from the transmission of pathogens to juvenile and adult salmonids from farmed fish
This acknowledgement of harm from the highest level of government is significant, particularly considering one of NOAA’s objectives is to work with the industry to promote and expand aquaculture nationwide. Even through this conservative lens, the agency’s analysis clearly acknowledges the various mechanisms in which Puget Sound’s commercial net pens risk and harm Chinook, steelhead, and other threatened and endangered species and the habitats they depend on.
The net pen aquaculture industry, including Cooke Aquaculture, has emphatically celebrated this report to members of the press and on industry news sites in an attempt to downplay the findings that their operations are harming the very species the public, local governments, and Tribal Nations are working tirelessly to protect and restore.
“The fact that this industry is celebrating that their operations won’t cause the immediate extinction of our threatened and endangered species, but rather will only continue to contribute to their decline is an unacceptably low bar.”
Emma Helverson, Executive Director, Wild Fish Conservancy
How We Got Here
The new biological opinion investigating Puget Sound net pens is the direct result of a decade of legal challenges by Our Sound, Our Salmon organizer Wild Fish Conservancy against NOAA Fisheries and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to comply with the Endangered Species Act in their assessment of the impacts commercial net pens pose to protected species and their ecosystems. Prior to these legal actions, NOAA and the EPA firmly held that net pens were unlikely to harm any ESA-listed species and therefore comprehensive review of the potential effects through a biological opinion had never occurred.
Under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies are required to go back and ‘reinitiate consultation’ and prepare a new biological opinion in certain cases, such as when new information that previously had not been considered reveals effects of the action that may affect listed species or their critical habitat.
Between 2008 and 2018, Wild Fish Conservancy argued in two separate lawsuits that NOAA and the EPA were required to reinitiate formal consultation and conduct the first comprehensive biological opinion due to the growing scientific record of the potential harm net pens pose, and in response to major pathogen outbreak and escape events that occurred in Puget Sound net pen facilities over that time.
In 2010, a federal Court ruled that NOAA and the EPA had failed to use the best available science when making their decision and ordered the agencies to go back and reconsider whether a biological opinion is prudent. After a brief consultation, NOAA and EPA reported back to the Court that they had determined once again that this formal consultation was unnecessary.
Shortly after this decision, a massive viral outbreak occurred in Atlantic salmon net pens off the coast of Bainbridge Island in 2012 that spread to all three facilities in Rich Passage, persisting for over a month during a time when juvenile wild salmon were out-migrating through Puget Sound and killing over 1 million pounds of farmed Atlantic salmon.
Wild Fish Conservancy again challenged the agencies’ decision to avoid a biological opinion in 2015, a lawsuit that was ongoing when a net pen imploded in the Cypress Island Marine Reserve in August 2017. The collapse released over 260,000 nonnative farmed Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound, fish now known to be infected with an exotic virus imported by the industry and amplified in their net pens undetected by regulators.
Finally in 2018, on the eve of Court proceedings and after a federal Court rejected the agencies’ efforts to dismiss the 2015 lawsuit, NOAA and EPA announced they had entered into formal consultation under the Endangered Species Act. The result of that formal consultation is the new biological opinion released in February 2022.
What’s Next?
NOAA’s acknowledgement of the harm commercial net pens pose is a major step forward, however significant concerns remain over how federal regulators intend to minimize that harm or ‘take’ they report is reasonable and likely to occur. The biological opinion includes a section on ‘Reasonable and Prudent Measures’, however this mitigation relies entirely on NOAA and the EPA reviewing monitoring data and reports the commercial net pen industry is already required to submit to Washington state agencies as part of their existing permits.
In short, the primary strategy for minimizing or eliminating harm to our most threatened or endangered fish populations depends directly on the commercial net pen industry self-monitoring and self-reporting their own violations. This is particularly concerning given Puget Sound’s current and only commercial net pen operator Cooke Aquaculture has demonstrated a pattern and practice of violating state and federal law, both in Puget Sound and around the world. While leasing public waters in Washington, Cooke Aquaculture has violated the terms of their permits, leases, and was held accountable for $2.75 million in Clean Water Act violations (including failure to accurately report.)
It is imperative that federal and state agencies work together to address this failed regulatory approach that is unlikely to prevent catastrophic events before the occur and will only continue to put threatened and endangered wild salmon, steelhead, tribal treaty rights, and the public’s interest at risk.
This week, Cooke Aquaculture faced yet another legal defeat when a second Washington court rejected their efforts to sue Washington state over the termination of the company’s lease for their Port Angeles net pen operation.
On Tuesday, Washington’s Court of Appeals issued an opinion affirming a lower court ruling upholding the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) decision to terminate the lease.
The Court’s decision represents another major step forward in the public’s hard-fought efforts to remove this dirty industry from Puget Sound waters. Our Sound, Our Salmon applauds the Courts for putting our natural resources and the interest of the public ahead of this powerful corporate interest.
Cooke Aquaculture’s net pens in Port Angeles Harbor prior to being removed after the termination of the lease in December 2017.
This week’s decision concludes a nearly four-year appeal process that began in early 2018 when Cooke filed suit against DNR, arguing the agency had wrongfully terminated the lease ahead of the 2025 expiration date. In 2020, a Thurston County Superior Court Judge rejected Cooke’s challenge and the company appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals which issued the opinion this week.
DNR terminated the lease in December 2017 after an investigation revealed various violations at the Port Angeles facility, including operating outside of its boundaries, failure to pay rent timely, and not operating the facility in a safe condition. Shortly following the termination, the net pens were completely removed from Port Angeles Harbor.
“My duty to the people of Washington is to protect our state lands and waters, while also generating revenue for schools, essential services, and restoration of natural areas like Puget Sound. After the collapse of Cooke’s Cypress Island net pen in August, which released 160,000 non-native salmon into our waters, I directed my staff to inspect every net pen site in the state to ensure that Cooke was meeting its contractual obligations and that our waters are safe.
“It is now clear that Cooke has been violating the lease terms for its Port Angeles net pens. In light of this violation, and in fulfillment of my commitment to protect our lands and waters, I am terminating the lease.”
Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands, December 17, 2017
This week the Court overwhelming rejected Cooke’s opinion that the decision to terminate the lease was arbitrary and capricious, finding DNR’s decision “was based on facts supported by substantial evidence, pursuant to plain terms of the contract, was well reasoned and made with due regard to the facts and circumstances.”
Cooke Aquaculture was found at fault for the August 2017 collapse of their Cypress Island net pen within the Cypress Island Marine Reserver and Conservation Area. The collapse released over 260,000 nonnative fish into Puget Sound that were infected with an exotic, debilitating virus. Photo: Wild Fish Conservancy
Cooke is also suing DNR in a separate ongoing lawsuit over the early termination of the company’s Cypress Island lease. The lease was terminated following the 2017 catastrophic collapse of a Cooke net pen that released over 260,000 nonnative Atlantic salmon infected with an exotic virus into Puget Sound.
FURTHER READING: Washington state cancels lease for Cooke Aquaculture Atlantic salmon farm near Cypress Island | The Seattle Times
A comprehensive investigation by DNR and other Washington agencies found Cooke at fault for the collapse and Cooke was also required to pay $2.75 million in Clean Water Act violations in a lawsuit brought by Wild Fish Conservancy. The collapse also resulted in Washington passing a landmark and widely celebrated law banning all nonnative Atlantic salmon finfish aquaculture, Cooke’s only enterprise at the time.
“I hope the public will join me in thanking Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and her department for their unwavering commitment to protecting Puget Sound in the face of Cooke’s meritless, costly, and time-consuming lawsuits. Under Commissioner Franz’s leadership, DNR has a proven record as the only regulatory agency in Washington willing to take bold action to hold this dangerous industry accountable.”
Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy & Founder of Our Sound, Our Salmon
In a controversial decision, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife permitted Cooke in 2020 to begin rearing steelhead in their Puget Sound net pens where the company holds valid leases. With the Cypress Island and Port Angeles leases terminated by DNR, Cooke only holds valid leases for two net pen sites in Puget Sound. Both leases will expire next year, and Cooke will need to apply and secure new leases from DNR to continue operating in Washington. In a letter to Cooke earlier this year, DNR warned the company that the agency has not yet decided if they will issue Cooke new leases.
This week’s Court decision could not have come at a more important time. With Cooke’s only existing leases set to expire next year, DNR is in a critical decision-making period that will determine the future of this industry in Puget Sound. The Court’s decision removes any opportunity for Cooke to try and recover millions in lost revenue from DNR, which would have provided Cooke important leverage to potentially negotiate their future and new leases in our public waters.
In July 2020, Wild Fish Conservancy submitted official applications to DNR requesting to lease all of the sites used by Cooke for commercial net pen aquaculture. This alternative proposal, the Taking Back Our Sound Restoration Project, seeks to hold these waters in public trust for the sole purposes of restoring these polluted sites to their natural state and restoring the public’s access to over 130 acres of Puget Sound that have been restricted for private profit for over three decades.
Through the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign — Taking Back Our Sound — this proposal is now supported by a broad-based coalition of over 100 businesses and organizations and over 6,000 individuals who have signed onto the petition to Commissioner Franz calling on DNR to not extend, renew, or reissue leases for commercial net pen aquaculture in Puget Sound and to instead lease these waters for this unprecedented restoration project.
The expiration of these leases comes only once in a decade and offers the public a rare opportunity to work together to take back our sound from the net pen industry. Cooke’s first lease will expire in March 2022, therefore it’s critical at this time that we continue to work together to call on DNR to make the right decision for wild fish and the health of Puget Sound.
Add your name to the petition to Commissioner Franz!
Sign on your business, organization, or group!
Yesterday, despite ongoing litigation and prior to finalizing updates to emergency response plans critical to protecting wild salmon, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) granted fish farm giant Cooke Aquaculture a transport permit to begin planting steelhead/ rainbow trout in their Hope Island net pen facility.
Hope Island net pen near the mouth of the Skagit River, Puget Sound’s most important salmon bearing river. Photo by Steve Ringman, Seattle Times
The timing of this decision has perplexed many throughout Puget Sound given next month the Washington Supreme Court will hold trial to determine whether WDFW violated state law by approving Cooke Aquaculture’s project proposal to transition their Puget Sound net pens to steelhead/ rainbow trout without adequately considering the environmental risks.
If the Court rules against WDFW, all of Cooke’s existing permits and the underlying environmental review will be invalidated until WDFW conducts the comprehensive environmental impact statement requested by salmon and orca advocates, six Tribal Nations, elected officials, and thousands of members of the public.
As a result, Cooke’s permits could be revoked while they have farmed fish rearing in their net pens, a less than ideal situation that could result in a lengthy and expensive legal battle and has the potential to place an unnecessary financial burden on the public. Just as concerning, if not more, is the potential harm and impact to threatened and endangered wild fish populations and the health of Puget Sound that could occur during the time these fish are in the water. By revoking the permits the Court would be agreeing that the environmental review did not adequately consider or address the environmental impacts of this project, further highlighting the recklessness of this rushed decision to allow Cooke to stock their pens before challenges of the permitting process are complete.
“Right now, Washington’s highest court is deciding whether Cooke Aquaculture’s new project should have ever been approved. This decision to approve the transport of fish into Puget Sound net pens while the court's decision is pending is reckless and further demonstrates an alarming pattern of state agencies putting the wishes of a billion-dollar industry ahead of wild salmon recovery, tribal treaty rights, and the public’s best interest.”
Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director, Wild Fish Conservancy
During the August 6th Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting a day after the transport permit was granted, WDFW Director Kelly Susewind defended the decision pointing out that currently, Cooke has a valid lease and valid permits to operate at its Hope Island site despite pending litigation, and that the agency can find no legal basis to deny the transport permit. This explanation suggests WDFW either does not have authority to delay issuing a permit even when there is a financial and ecological risk, or they have the authority but choose to take an action that directly benefits Cooke at the expense of threatened and endangered species and the public’s best interest. Even if Cooke can legally be granted a transport permit, meeting bare minimum legal requirements is not an appropriate or precautionary approach to managing species threatened or endangered with extinction.
The new permit, signed August 5th by the department, will allow for 365,000 steelhead to be transported and placed in Cooke’s facility off Hope Island located at the mouth of the Skagit River— one of Washington’s most important salmon bearing rivers.
Much like Cooke Aquaculture’s permits, the future of the company's leases also face uncertainty. The existing lease for the Hope Island facility expires in March 2022 and Cooke will need to secure a new lease in order to continue operating. Based on Cooke’s own timeline, this lease expiration will occur long before the 365,000 steelhead at this facility would reach a harvestable size. Without a valid lease for this farm beyond that deadline, Cooke would be required to remove these fish, as well as all of their net pen infrastructure.
In July 2020, through the new initiative Taking Back Our Sound, Our Sound, Our Salmon founder Wild Fish Conservancy submitted applications to lease all public waters currently and historically used for commercial net pen aquaculture in Puget Sound. In contrast to Cooke’s proposal to continue restricting and degrading these waters for private profit, the Taking Back Our Sound Restoration Project seeks to hold these waters in public trust for the sole purposes of restoring them to their natural state and restoring the public’s access to over 130 acres of Puget Sound. Right now, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is deciding between these two starkly different proposals. Help call on DNR to make the right choice by signing the petition below!
Another key concern is that WDFW is allowing Cooke to begin planting fish in their Hope Island net pen before the agency has finalized updates to two emergency response plans for responding to escape events like the Cypress Island collapse. According to Cooke’s permits, these plans— the ‘Fish Escape Response and Reporting Plan’ and ‘Fish Escape Prevention Plan’— only need to be updated annually and are not a legal requirement of the transport permits themselves. These updated plans have been submitted by Cooke to WDFW and are currently being evaluated. While the decision to allow Cooke to begin planting their Hope Island site prior to these plans being updated may be legal as defined by Cooke’s operational permits, it certainly does not demonstrate precautionary natural resource management.
Most concerning, Cooke is required to consult with local Tribal Nations in drafting these plans, and as far as we understand has never occurred. This is particularly concerning given Tribal Nations were forced to shoulder the burden of recovering Cooke’s escaped fish during and following the Cypress Island collapse. We are entirely grateful to the Lummi Nation and other Tribal Nations who sacrificed their own fishing seasons in order to lead an emergency response effort after industry and government failed to implement a sufficient response plan.
Regardless of the minimum legal requirements, stocking these net pens should not occur when the future of Cooke’s leases and permits are uncertain, before Tribal Nations have been adequately consulted, and when updates to emergency procedures are pending.
Washington Agencies Agree to Provide Additional Time for Public to Comment on Important Commercial Net Pen Management Plan
Earlier this week, we shared the alarming news that Washington state agencies failed to provide the public a fair and adequate opportunity to weigh in on the draft Guidance for Commercial Marine Net Pen Aquaculture, a vitally important and far-reaching plan that will guide how local and state governments manage commercial net pens in Washington's public waters.
Today, after members of the Our Sound, Our Salmon coalition and others called out Washington agencies for failing to provide adequate time and notice of this opportunity to comment, Washington state agencies agreed to extend the comment period deadline from June 21st to August 5th.
This week's efforts and success highlight the important role the Our Sound, Our Salmon coalition continues to play in watchdogging this industry, as we aggressively move forward our campaigns and legal strategies to permanently remove this industry from Puget Sound.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an extension request and helped draw attention from all levels of government to the fundamentally broken process undermining this public review.
The additional 48-days provided by this extension will ensure organizations like Wild Fish Conservancy and other members of the public have time to adequately review the draft guidance and meet the true intent of public review— providing thorough and detailed comments that are informative to agency officials and ensure government decision-making is transparent, evidence-driven, and equitable.
In the coming weeks, we will be sure to share a summary of our primary recommendations to serve as a guide and reference as you develop your own comments on this detailed and technically complex plan. Information on this public comment period is available on the Department of Ecology's website.
Thanks again to everyone who helped to hold our state agencies accountable for correcting this broken public process and ensuring the public has a fair and adequate opportunity to comment on how commercial net pens in Washingotn are managed.
Submit a Request to Extend the Public Comment Period on Important Commercial Net Pen Management Plan
If you believe the public deserves adequate time and notice to provide input on how commercial net pens operating in public waters are managed, take the important action below today!
Right now, Washington state agencies responsible for regulating the commercial net pen aquaculture industry are holding a public comment period on the draft State Guidance for Commercial Marine Net Pen Aquaculture, a long-lasting and far-reaching plan that will guide how commercial net pens are managed by Washington local and state government officials.
This plan has been in development by the Departments of Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, Natural Resources, and Agriculture since 2015, yet the public has only been provided 21-days to review, digest, and provide informed comments on over 100 pages of complex and technical information.
To make matters worse, state agencies have provided little to no public notification of this opportunity so many organizations, elected officials, local businesses, and members of the public with serious concerns over how this industry is managed in Washington state, remain largely unaware of this important opportunity with only six days left to provide input.
In 2019, during the comment period reviewing Cooke Aquaculture’s new steelhead marine net pen proposal, agencies reported unprecedented public participation with over 3,500 unique comments. In this case, agency officials extended the comment period on two separate occasions to ensure the public had adequate opportunity to comment. The draft plan currently being reviewed is more detailed and larger in scope, clearly demonstrating the need for the agencies to extend the current comment period.
HERE’S WHAT TO DO:
SEND AN EMAIL TO: casey.dennehy@ecy.wa.gov, Casey Dennehy
INCLUDE IN YOUR EMAIL:
a request for a 90-day extension of the current public comment period on the draft State Guidance for Commercial Marine Net Pen Aquaculture
EXAMPLE:
Casey,
I am writing to request a 90-day extension of the current public comment period on the draft State Guidance for Commercial Marine Net Pen Aquaculture. I only learned about this opportunity to comment today and need more time to review this 100 plus page document and make informed comments.
[Optional: Include a personal reason or concerns for your interest in submitting comments on the management of commercial net pen aquaculture]
Thank you,
[Your Name]
QUESTIONS? REACH OUT!
info@wildfishconservancy.org or call Emma Helverson at 484-788-1174
The ongoing legal challenge seeking to reverse the State’s approval of Cooke Aquaculture’s proposal to rear steelhead in their banned Atlantic salmon net pens will be decided in Washington’s highest court.
We are excited to report that in March, we were notified by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that the department reviewing our request unanimously agreed to enter the case for hearing and decision, denying requests from Cooke and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to reject the case.
On March 19, we officially filed our opening brief in the case asking the Washington Supreme Court to reverse the lower Court decision, find that WDFW violated SEPA with their insufficient review, invalidate Cooke’s permit and the underlying SEPA determination, and to begin preparing an EIS.
Background
In February of 2020, Wild Fish Conservancy and our partners at the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, and Friends of the Earth, filed a lawsuit against the Washingotn Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) for violating state law by permitting Cooke's new proposal without requiring a comprehensive environmental impact statement (EIS). This type of review would have fully analyzed the risks posed to wild fish, water quality, and the overall health of Puget Sound.
In November 2020, a lower Court made an unfortunate ruling to uphold WDFW’s approval of Cooke’s steelhead proposal stating the Court did not have the scientific expertise necessary to overrule the agency’s opinion. As a result, the Judge was unable to consider the merits of the lawsuit and deferred to WDFW on the very decision and underlying scientific review being challenged.
Appealing to Washington’s Highest court
With the merits of the case unresolved, Wild Fish Conservancy and our partners promptly and without hesitation filed an appeal of the lower Court’s decision. Given the urgent need for a timely ruling in the case and the overwhelming public interest in the outcome, we made the decision to file our appeal straight to the Washington Supreme Court, skipping over the Appeals Court all together.
We knew the decision involved risk, but with its increased capabilities and resources, Washington’s highest Court would be far more capable and prepared to address the technical merits of this case moving forward.
WDFW and Cooke both submitted documents to the Court requesting that the Supreme Court deny our request and reject the case. The argued “WDFW’s SEPA review is not an issue of broad public import warranting direct review by this Court.”
An ironic statement considering the agency acknowledged the public’s participation in the public comment period of WDFW’s SEPA review was unprecedented, needing to be extended twice to accommodate the thousands of individuals, Tribal Nations, state agencies, public officials, businesses, and organizations overwhelming opposing WDFW’s decision and calling for an EIS.
We are excited to report that in March, we were notified by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that the department reviewing our request unanimously agreed to enter the case for hearing and decision.
On March 19, we officially filed our opening brief in the case asking the Washington Supreme Court to reverse the lower Court decision, find that WDFW violated SEPA with their insufficient review, invalidate Cooke’s permit and the underlying SEPA determination, and to begin preparing an EIS.
We will be sure to keep you updated as the case moves forward in 2021.
Not on My Watch: How a Renegade Whale Biologist Took on Governments and Industry to Save Wild Salmon
We wanted to share a brand new book by independent biologist Alexandra Morton who has spent decades working alongside First Nations to pioneer the fight against salmon farms throughout B.C.
Her new book details her long journey from killer whale biologist to wild salmon scientist, activist, and watchdog.
Alexandra has been called "the Jane Goodall of Canada" because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia's wild salmon. Her account of that fight is both inspiring in its own right and a roadmap of resistance.
“I am part of the resistance movement against extinction. The movement spans the globe. We are a force of nature. Like a river, we well up, slip around, bore through and dive under obstacles. We don’t stop.”
The Tyee’s recent article, Alexandra Morton’s Book Should Galvanize Action on Salmon, gives an excellent overview of how Alex, a killer whale biologists living a quiet and serene life in BC’s Broughton Archipelago first began to question how the local salmon farms could be impacting wild salmon— an investigation that fundamentally changed the course of her life.
In their article, the publication compares the call to action inspired by the book tantamount to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
“Alexandra Morton has written an infuriating book that, by rights, should create sufficient uproar to bring a rapid end to a perverse experiment to rear Atlantic salmon in the Pacific…
“Alex Morton’s Not on My Watch, like Silent Spring, should touch off a national debate about rights and obligations, and while we’re at it, about decolonization. If Not on My Watch needs to be peer reviewed, those peers should include ordinary people with a thirst for justice and common sense. And every politician should be judged by their reaction to this book.”
But when it comes to peer-reviewed research, Alexandra has written her fair share. In the past two decades, she has authored over 20 published studies investigating the environmental impacts of commercial salmon farms. Her research has clearly documented and exposed the degree to which net pens amplify and spread harmful pathogens like sea lice and viruses from farmed fish to wild populations. She was one of the first to discover, investigate, and inform the public of the prevalence, impact, and origin of the Piscine Reovirus (PRV), a nonnative virus that has been documented in salmon farms from Washington to B.C.
Alexandra’s research has significantly expanded our understanding of the impacts salmon farms pose to wild Pacific salmon and together with her activism, has been a driving force behind coastwide advocacy efforts to end the practice of salmon farming in open waters.
And possibly most inspiring, is Alexandra’s courage and endurance to continue to stand up to the Canadian federal government and the billion dollar aquaculture industry no matter the consequences.
Wild Fish Conservancy first connected with Alexandra over a decade ago after reading her early groundbreaking research connecting sea lice and net pens in the Broughton Archipelago. This connection would lead us to a decade long journey watchdogging, researching, and litigating against the commercial net pen industry in Puget Sound, and eventually to found the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign in 2017. In short, our campaign and success to date would not be possible without Alex.
A huge congratulations to our friend and colleague Alexandra Morton for continuing to inspire and lead our shared coastwide effort to end commercial salmon farms.
‘Not On my Watch’ is available in eBook, audiobook, or hardcover formats. Click below to learn more about how you can get your hands on a copy of this inspiring new book.
Over $1 million in Clean Water Act violation settlement funds— profits earned by the net pen industry at the expense of Puget Sound’s wild salmon, orcas, and ecosystems— turned into a power for good to help recover endangered Southern Resident orcas.
In 2017, shortly after the Cypress Island net pen collapse that spilled over 300,000 nonnative Atlantic salmon infected with an exotic virus into Puget Sound, Our Sound, Our Salmon founder Wild Fish Conservancy filed a citizen suit to hold Cooke Aquaculture accountable for multiple violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Throughout the two year case two federal Judge’s upheld nearly all of Wild Fish Conservancy’s summary judgments and claims, and days before having to defend themselves in court, Cooke agreed to Wild Fish Conservancy’s settlement terms. Learn more about the Court’s findings.
In addition to agreeing to stricter regulations and reporting requirements, the agreement required Cooke to cover WFC’s litigation expenses and contribute over $1 million to create the Orca Fund, a new mitigation fund and grant program at the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment designed to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales and to improve the water quality they depend on.
This winter, the Orca Fund distributed its first round of grants, awarding nearly $300,000 to support a docket of five inspiring research, education, and advocacy projects.
Southern Resident killer whales, NOAA
These projects are being led by nonprofits and research institutions throughout the Salish Sea region and address a diverse array of aspects of Southern Resident killer whale health and recovery, including:
developing tools, materials, and campaigns to educate and engage the public on this important issue
conducting research to monitor and assess the health of the Southern Resident population and their prey
improving our knowledge and understanding of the factors contributing to the population’s alarming decline
evaluating the success of recovery actions
helping to guide policy makers and elected officials in developing management actions that reflect best available science
We are excited to see these Clean Water Act violation settlement funds— profits earned by Cooke at the expense of Puget Sound’s wild salmon, orcas, and ecosystems— turned into a power for good to help recover our region’s beloved and critically endangered Southern Resident orca population.
Our congratulations and appreciation to all of the Orca Fund grant recipients and the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment!
Further Reading
Check out our previous news stories describing two ongoing legal actions to hold the net pen industry and government responsible for protecting Puget Sound from the environmental impacts of commercial net pen aquaculture:
Cooke Aquaculture Faces a New Lawsuit | February 12, 2021
Environmental Groups Appeal Approval Of Cooke's New Net Pen Project To Washington’s Supreme Court | November 23, 2021
Cooke Aquaculture Faces New Lawsuit Over Puget Sound Net Pens Harm to Threatened and Endangered Orcas, Chinook, Steelhead, and Other Protected Wild Fish
Photo: WA Department of Natural Resources
This week, the group leading the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign, Wild Fish Conservancy, issued notice of our intent to sue seafood corporation Cooke Aquaculture Pacific for harming threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead, orcas, and other protected species through operations at the company’s Puget Sound net pens. The notice letter delivered to Cooke earlier this week, describes Wild Fish Conservancy’s intent to file suit in 60-days unless these ongoing violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are promptly addressed and corrected. Wild Fish Conservancy is represented in this matter by Kampmeier & Knutsen, PLLC, of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.
The notice letter explains that Cooke’s net pen facilities kill, capture, trap, harm and otherwise “take” federally-protected species without authorization violating section 9 of the ESA. According to the ESA, “take” means “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct."
This harm is impacting a variety of iconic, protected Puget Sound species including Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, chum salmon, Boccaccio, Yelloweye Rockfish, and Southern Resident killer whale.
This take results from a variety of mechanisms that occur during Cooke’s regular operations, as well as catastrophic events all too well known here in Puget Sound, including:
bycatch* or incidental harvest of ESA-listed fish during Cooke’s harvest operations
the false attraction of ESA-listed fish and their predators to Cooke’s operations that causes disruption of essential behavior patterns and increased predation on protected fish species
the spread and amplification of harmful viruses, parasites, and diseases like sea lice or Piscine Reovirus (PRV) from infected farmed fish to wild, ESA-listed populations
bycatch of ESA-listed fish during efforts such as occurred following the Cypress Island collapse in 2017 to recover farmed fish that have escaped from Cooke’s net pens
chronic and episodic escape events that result in Cooke’s farmed fish degrading the genetics of threatened steelhead populations, and competing with ESA-listed fish species for food, habitat, and mates
*(bycatch is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while catching certain target species and target sizes of fish. These unintentionally caught animals often suffer injuries or die.)
Wild Fish Conservancy director Kurt Beardslee stands over a tote of escaped Atlantic salmon recovered following the Cypress Island collapse. WFC’s research found and exposed that nearly 100% of the fish that escaped were infected with an exotic virus from Iceland where Cooke Aquaculture purchased their Atlantic salmon eggs. The escape of these infected fish and efforts to recover them likely resulted in the bycatch of threatened and endangered fish and the spread of this potentially lethal and exotic virus to protected populations of wild salmon and other fish.
“For over thirty years, and now under Cooke’s ownership, commercial net pens in Puget Sound have been harming the very species in which the public, Tribal Nations, and all levels of government have invested millions of dollars annually to recover and protect. We cannot allow this industry to continue profiting in our public waters while pushing imperiled salmon, steelhead, orcas and other iconic fish species closer to extinction.”
Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy
Photo: NOAA
Our notice letter to Cooke further explains that Cooke’s operations also harm ESA-listed Southern Resident killer whales by harming and killing Puget Sound Chinook and other salmon species which serve as a critical component of the whales’ diet. This orca population is considered severely endangered due primarily to inadequate prey availability and one the public has invested significant resources to recover and protect. Several populations of Puget Sound Chinook have already become extinct, and several others—including those within the Nooksack, Lake Washington, mid-Hood Canal, Puyallup, and Dungeness basins—have experienced critically low returns of less than 200 adult fish in recent years.
The claims in our notice letter are supported by a new analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which found Cooke’s net pens are “likely to adversely affect” several iconic fish populations listed under the ESA, including Chinook salmon, steelhead, chum salmon, Bocaccio, and Yelloweye Rockfish in the Puget Sound region.
As a result, NOAA Fisheries is currently conducting a comprehensive review, known as a biological opinion, under the ESA to further analyze and expand upon the EPA’s initial finding. A biological opinion is a document stating the opinion of the Fish and Wildlife Service or NOAA Fisheries on whether or not a federal action is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat. Once complete, this federal consultation is expected to subject Cooke to new requirements necessary to protect threatened and endangered species from further harm and may even require modifications of Cooke’s current permits from the Department of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife.
Even our federal agencies acknowledge net pens cannot operate in Puget Sound without causing harm to protected species. As long as Cooke continues to operate commercial net pens in our public waters, this harm to threatened and endangered species will continue to occur.
Our Sound, Our Salmon encourages Cooke to join with progressive companies throughout the industry working in good faith to be a part of the solution and embracing the global transition to land-based, closed containment facilities that are capable of operating without harming the environment.
This lawsuit would represent the second major case filed by Wild Fish Conservancy against Cooke Aquaculture since the company acquired all the commercial net pens in Puget Sound. In November 2019, Cooke was required to pay $2.75 million as a result of a Clean Water Act lawsuit brought by Wild Fish Conservancy following a massive net pen collapse that released over 250,000 nonnative Atlantic salmon infected with an exotic virus into Puget Sound. These funds are now contributing over one million dollars to the new ‘Orca’ fund, a rant program funding research and community outreach projects working to recover and protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales.
Read the full 60-day notice of intent to sue
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Today, another one of Cooke Aquaculture’s remaining net pens was towed away and removed from Puget Sound. This facility, which has operated for over three decades near Bainbridge Island and within the Orchard Rocks Conservation Area, will finally be put to rest for metal salvage. Over that time this site has experienced deadly viral outbreaks, sea lice infestations, structural failures, and discharged rampant levels of pollution on a daily basis.
We know this news will come as huge celebration to residents on Bainbridge Island and the public throughout Puget Sound. In November, the Bainbridge Island City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution declaring support for the Taking Back Our Sound campaign, Wild Fish Conservancy's competing proposal to lease all waters in Puget Sound leased and degraded by the net pen industry for over three decades. Check out our news article on the City's resolution.
This removal builds on a similar victory from September when Cooke removed their only net pen from the Port Angeles Harbor, as well as the shuttering of the remaining Cypress Island pens following the catastrophic collapse event in August 2017. After today, only three net pens remain in Puget Sound with valid leases and permits to operate. And just two months ago, the Canadian government announced another 19 fish farms will be decommissioned along the British Columbia coast.
While the fight isn’t over, the removal of another one of Cooke’s net pens is a true testament to the incredible movement that continues to grow in Washington and throughout the northwest.
As we continue to push forward, thank you to all our members and supporters of the Our Sound, Our Salmon campaign, the conservation community, Tribal Nations, First Nations, and the public at large for making it possible to protect the northwest's wild fish and the health of our public waters from this harmful industry.