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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