Over $1 million in commercial fish farm profits are finding new life in ‘Orca Fund’

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!

Learn more about these inspiring projects and the organizations behind them on the Rose Foundatin’s website.

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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

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

Have you signed the Taking Back Our Sound petition? Click below to see our current supporters and join this growing coalition!

Bainbridge Island City Council Resolution Supports Taking Back Our Sound

On November 27th, the Bainbridge Island City Council passed an official resolution declaring support for the Taking Back Our Sound campaign, a competing proposal to lease all waters in Puget Sound leased and degraded by the net pen industry for over three decades.

A RESOLUTION of the City Council of Bainbridge Island, Washington, hereby declaring the City Council’s support for the Wild Fish Conservancy’s proposal to the Washington Department of Natural Resources to lease aquatic lands in Rich Passage currently leased for commercial marine net pen finfish aquaculture for the purposes of restoring these aquatic lands to their natural state and restoring full access of these aquatic lands for the public’s full benefit, use, and enjoyment.

The resolution urges Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz to deny new leases to Cooke Aquaculture in Rich Passage and to instead lease those same public waters for the Taking Back Our Sound Restoration Project proposal that seeks to eliminate all commercial net pens and the environmental impacts they pose, thereby restoring these industrialized sites and public access to 130 acres of Puget Sound— 54 of which lie in waters surrounding Bainbridge Island.

The Council also encourages all Bainbridge Island residents to sign the Taking Back Our Sound petition to Commissioner Franz which urges the Department of Natural Resources to stop leasing our public waters for net pen aquaculture and to guarantee the public that these waters—currently degraded and restricted for private profit—will be restored and managed for the public’s benefit and use by all citizens

The resolution, introduced by City Council member Christy Carr, passed with unanimous support form all six council members and was signed by the Mayor. The resolution describes the Council’s concerns over the well-documented risks and environmental impacts posed by three commercial net pens spread across Rich Passage, with specific concern over the impacts to the Orchard Rocks Conservation Area. Two of Cooke’s three net pens in Rich Passage lie directly within this conservation area, designated for special protection in 1998 for the unique and priority habitat it provides for a rich variety of marine plants, mammal, fish, and bird species.

The Council also expresses their concern over the potential for the Bainbridge Island net pens to create a dangerous obstacle and nuisance attraction for marine mammals, including the endangered Southern Resident killer whale population. In April, a Bainbridge Island resident captured video footage of killer whales swimming dangerously close to the net pens in Rich Passage while the industry was operating their harvest vessel. Similarly, sea lions and seals have been observed by local landowners both inside the pens and hauling out on the structures, increasing the risk of harassment, boat strikes, entanglement, consumption of pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals, as well as the potential for unnatural levels of predation on wild fish also falsely attracted to the pens. The gallery below shows one case in which over 100 pinnipeds were hauled out on a single pen near Fort Ward Park.

The Council also state’s their concern over the industry’s history of permit violations and mismanagement at the Bainbridge net pen facilities. Violations at these pens includes:

• 1999 net pen facility collapse that released approximately 100,000 non-native salmon into Puget Sound

• 2012 outbreak of Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) that lasted several months, spreading from one to all three net pens in Rich Passage and occurred while juvenile salmon were out-migrating through Rich Passage

• 2017 violations by Cooke Aquaculture that resulted in fines for unlawfully discharging polluting matter into state waters, pressure washing equipment, nets, and vehicles over the water and allowing wastewater to enter Puget Sound, changing boat engine oil over the water, failing to put safeguards in place to protect water quality, failing to correct water quality violations when directed

• 2019 partial failure of one of Cooke’s net pens located in the Orchard Rocks Conservation Area

We appreciate this support and dedication from the Bainbridge Island City Council and greater community to protect Puget Sound from harm by this industry. A special thank you to Commissioner Christy Carr for introducing this resolution.

The Net Pen Industry's Modest Proposal for Starving Southern Residents

Last week the aquaculture industry’s favorite propaganda news site, SeaWestNews, released an article proposing a self-proclaimed radical idea to recover the northwest’s starving Southern Resident killer whales— chase the whales down in boats and try to force them to eat farmed Atlantic salmon.

While not a serious proposal, this tongue-in-cheek satire is undoubtedly an attempt to paint net pen aquaculture in a positive light to a public increasingly concerned about the risks the industry poses to critically endangered orcas and their prey.

Photo: NOAA

The industry insiders offer vague descriptions of how this supplemental feeding of farmed Atlantic salmon would work and no scientific data to support the idea, further suggesting that this is not a serious plan but an attempt to exploit starving killer whales for profit.  

They point to the example of Springer, an emaciated Northern Resident killer whale who in the early 2000's was fed a diet that included farmed Atlantic salmon as part of her rehabilitation before being reintroduced into the wild.

While Springer was taken into captivity for her feedings, we can be glad the aquaculture industry doesn’t suggest rearing whales in net pens. Instead, the article suggests large vessels carrying farmed fish could be driven straight into the whale’s foraging areas, an idea that directly contradicts coastwide efforts and legislation to reduce vessel noise in close proximity to the whales.

While not mentioned in the article, both scientists quoted as supporting this approach serve as board members or advisors to the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, the very group that would stand to profit from marketing farmed fish as feed for killer whales.

The industry promoters flaunted this Swiftian idea again this week in another pro-aquaculture publication where their claims diverted even further from science. First, distastefully holding up marine parks as great examples of orcas adapting to new diets, and then suggesting that like other wild animals whose habitat and prey have been reduced by humans, whales can simply adapt to be dependent on humans for food, likening the whales to trash pillaging bears, and apparently, farmed Atlantic salmon to garbage.

Most egregious is that both articles attempt to circumvent well-established evidence that open water net pen aquaculture contributes to the decline of the Southern Resident’s primary food source, wild Chinook salmon. By exposing Chinook and other wild salmon populations to harmful pathogens, rampant pollution, and escaped farmed fish, open water net pens pose an enormous threat to the survival of the northwest’s killer whales.

And beyond impacts to Chinook, open water net pens also expose orcas to a variety of other environmental risks. Often located in killer whale and salmon migration corridors, net pens require Southern Residents and other whales to navigate dangerous underwater infrastructure such as long cables protruding hundreds of feet out from the pens underwater.

The industry’s vessels expose migrating whales to underwater noise pollution at close distances that further reduce the whale’s ability to successfully navigate and locate prey. 

Video footage captured by Bainbridge Island residents, a group of transient orca whales swam are seen swimming in dangerous proximity to one of Cooke Auquacultur’s rich passage net pens.

Further, as northwest communities work to reduce toxins that further imperil emaciated Southern Residents, this industry has a poor environmental track record when it comes to abiding by local and federal water quality laws.

This “modest proposal” is another example of how far the aquaculture industry is willing to go to profit at the expense of the northwest’s wild salmon and killer whales.

Video footage captures orcas swimming dangerously close to Bainbridge net pens

Traditionally Bainbridge Island residents take pride in the opportunity to observe killer whales as they pass through Rich Passage. However, last week Bainbridge residents watched with apprehension as a group of transient orca whales swam in dangerous proximity to one of Cooke Aquaculture’s net pens where the industry was operating their harvesting vessel.

By exposing Chinook and other wild salmon populations to harmful pathogens, rampant pollution, and escaped farmed fish, open water net pens pose an enormous threat to the survival of the northwest’s killer whales, especially the critically endangered Southern Residents. But beyond this direct impact to the whale’s primary food source, open water net pens also expose orcas to a variety of other environmental risks.

Often located in killer whale and salmon migration corridors, net pens require Southern Residents and other whales to navigate dangerous underwater infrastructure such as long cables protruding far out from the pens underwater.

The industry’s vessels, such as the harvester boat observed in this video, expose migrating whales to underwater noise pollution at close distances that further reduce the whale’s ability to successfully navigate and locate prey.

And, as Washington strives to reduce toxins that further imperil emaciated Southern Residents, this industry has a poor environmental track record when it comes to abiding by local and federal water quality laws.

In 2018, Cooke Aquaculture was fined $8,000 for unlawfully discharging pollution at this same Rich Passage site, and, among other charges, failing to correct water quality violations when directed.

The science is clear, commercial open water net pens are incongruent with wild salmon and killer whale recovery.