Tag Archives: blamed high tides and currents

Structural Problems – Washington state fish farm’s collapse has reinvigorated salmon-farming debates

The Washington state fish farm that collapsed allowing many thousands of Atlantic salmon to escape into the Pacific showed signs of trouble last month, and was slated for upgrades. In late July, the Cooke Aquaculture-owned operation near Cypress Island required emergency work to stabilize the net pens after crews saw them moving in currents. Then last weekend, the same pens, containing 300,000 Atlantic salmon, began showing damage on Saturday before collapsing on Sunday, releasing an unknown number of fish. While the incident happened in Washington state, it’s reinvigorated the longstanding debate about fish farming on Canada’s West Coast, including the controversial but common practice of farming Atlantic salmon in Pacific waters. click here to read the story 08:26

Spill of farmed Atlantic salmon near San Juan Islands much bigger than first estimates –  The farm held a total of more than 300,000 fish weighing some 3 million pounds. click here to read the story 11:15