• As previously reported on this blog, Cooke Aquaculture (Cooke) sued the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) last month for terminating its Port Angeles net pen lease for salmon farming. On February 4, Washington State DNR announced that it was also terminating the lease for the company’s Cypress Island Atlantic salmon net pens. In August 2017, one of Cooke’s Cypress Island net pens failed, releasing more than 240,000 Atlantic salmon into the Puget Sound.
  • The termination of the Port Angeles net pen lease followed the January 30 release of a report on the net pen failure. The investigative report—prepared jointly Washington State’s Department of Ecology, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and DNR—determined that the probable cause of the incident was due to failure of Cooke to adequately clean the nets containing the fish. The report also faulted Cooke for underreporting the number of fish that escaped during the net pen collapse and for over-reporting the number of salmon it recovered. Furthermore, on January 30, the Washington State Department of Ecology fined Cooke $332,000 for violating it water quality permit leading up to and during the net pen collapse.
  • The future of Cooke’s remaining two leases for Atlantic salmon net pen facilities in Washington State (Rich Passage and Hope Island) is also uncertain. DNR is currently reviewing those leases. In addition, several bills have been introduced in the Washington legislature that would restrict aquaculture in Washington State. They range from HB 2956 that would restrict future salmon farming leases to production of single-sex salmon to SB 6086 that would ban any new leases for aquaculture of Atlantic salmon.