Tag Archives: Cooke Aquaculture
Cooke Aquaculture Fish farm has 60 days to fix net pens outside Seattle, risks losing lease
Just a week after the state Department of Fish and Wildlife approved shipment of 1 million more farmed Atlantic salmon to Cooke Aquaculture’s fish farm near Bainbridge Island, another state agency says it has found a hole in the nets and corrosion in the structure of the facility. The Department of Natural Resources on Monday notified Cooke that it is in default of the terms of its lease at its Rich Passage operation. It ordered the facility repaired within 60 days, or the department may cancel the company’s lease for the facility, which operates over public bed lands. click here to read the story 13:53
Cooke acquires Omega Protein for nearly USD 500 million
Cooke Aquaculture’s parent company has acquired Texas-based fish oil and fishmeal producer Omega Protein for nearly USD 500 million (EUR 428 million). The agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each of Omega Protein and Cooke, according to a press release. Cooke Inc., based in New Brunswick, Canada, and Houston-headquartered Omega Protein agreed to a purchase price of USD 22.00 (EUR 18.81) per share for the publicly traded company.,, The transaction, which is expected to close near the end of 2017 or early in 2018, according to Cooke, is subject to the approval of Omega Protein stockholders, certain regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions. click here to read the story 14:30
More Atlantic salmon coming to Puget Sound despite objections
The company that spilled thousands of invasive salmon into Puget Sound is sending 1 million more into local pens despite objections from state officials. “We are very concerned about Cooke Aquaculture’s plan to transfer up to 1 million Atlantic salmon smolts to a in Clam Bay across from Bainbridge Island. This is disappointing and frustrating, coming on the heels of the August collapse of Cooke’s net pen near Cypress Island that held 305,000 fish,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee said. click here to read the story 10:15
State gives OK to new salmon farm permit – The state found, however, that Fish and Wildlife didn’t have the authority to deny a permit to transfer fish into an existing pen, according to the joint release from Inslee and Franz. click here to read the story 10:42
Everyone’s Mad About Fugitive Salmon in the Pacific Northwest!
In a giant refrigerated warehouse 90 miles north of Seattle, 43,500 Atlantic salmon were stacked in plastic crates, frozen pariahs in a kingdom where Pacific salmon rule. For weeks, locals used nets to chase down the intruders, not to eat them or sell them, but to get them out of the water. Native fishermen who’ve worked Puget Sound for decades mocked them for looking different. Chefs and foodies refused to so much as lay a boning knife on them. Scientists, for their part, say they’re perfectly edible — a good source of protein in a world where increasing numbers of people could use some. But nobody is listening. click here to read the story 09:01
Protest seeks shutdown of Atlantic salmon farms in Washington state
Activists in Washington state plan to launch a protest flotilla on Saturday in the Pacific Ocean’s Puget Sound over the accidental release of tens of thousands of farm-raised Atlantic salmon that they say threaten dwindling stocks of wild fish. The afternoon protest, which seeks to shut down farms that raise the non-native salmon in underwater pens, is expected to draw dozens of boats, kayaks and canoes on a route along the San Juan Islands where the spill happened. That raised fears they would compete with wild fish for food, prey on the young, and expose them to disease. Protesters said native fish like Chinook salmon and steelhead trout were already struggling before the spill. click here to read the story 13:26
Atlantic salmon arrive in French Creek – Not in a good way!
Atlantic salmon, believed to be part of a cohort that escaped from a U.S.-based fish farm on Aug. 19, are being hauled in by anglers fishing out of French Creek on mid-Vancouver Island.
Cameron Wheatley, owner of the French Creek Store at the marina just north of Parksville, received the head of an apparent Atlantic salmon from a local angler late Sunday morning, Sept. 10. He is freezing the head, along with two more fish heads and one whole farm-raised salmon, to turn over to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. click here to read the story 16:33
Marine feedlots and the tide against wild fish
In a time of eclipse, for the People of the Salmon the moment was catastrophic. At the height of their season for the most prized of wild salmon in the Salish Sea, Lummi fishermen south of Cypress Island hauled in several flaccid, broken-mouthed farm fish, the first of thousands of Atlantic salmon that had escaped from a failed pen. They knew something was terribly wrong. Days would pass before Cooke Aquaculture, a subsidiary of the international company responsible for the pen, would stop blaming the sun and moon, and admit to the full scale of the collapse. click here to read the story
First Nations, environmentalists occupy salmon farm in British Columbia – A group of First Nations and environmentalists are occupying a salmon farm near Alert Bay, B.C., and say they won’t leave until the provincial and federal governments revoke permits for the facility. click here to read the story 10:43
Washington fish spill ‘a sad case of déjà vu,’ NL-CAR says
Leo White is shining a light on escapes of farmed fish here in Newfoundland after a recent incident at a Cooke Aquaculture site in Washington. White, a spokesperson the Newfoundland and Labrador Coalition for Aquaculture Reform (NL-CAR), said the escape of 305,000 Atlantic salmon on the west coast is “a sad case of déjà vu.”,,, “What has happened in Washington, and what continues to happen here in Newfoundland underscores the need for all new aquaculture proposals to complete a full environmental assessment,” White said. click here to read the story 09:55
Washington State halts salmon farm permits after fish escape – Critics call for Land Based Aquaculture
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has directed the Department of Ecology to put on hold any new permits for net pens after thousands of Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound earlier this month from a damaged salmon farm. State officials also announced on Saturday the formation of a response team made up of the departments of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife, and Ecology. The team includes the Office of the Governor and state Emergency Management Division. It’s not yet clear how many non-native Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound from Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon farm off Cypress Island. click here to read the story 12:05
Salmon spill prompts open-net fish farm critics to tout benefits of land-based aquaculture – Critics of open-net fish farms say the escape of Atlantic salmon from a Washington state pen should convince Canada to support a transition to land-based aquaculture, used by most of the world. click here to read the story 12:09
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
Traffic, sun blindness, now eclipse dumps 305,000 Farmed Atlantic salmon near San Juan Islands
It’s open season on (farmed) Atlantic salmon as the public is urged to help mop up a salmon spill from an imploded net holding 305,000 fish at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island. Lummi fishers out for chinook on Sunday near Samish, south of Bellingham Bay, were shocked to pull up the spotted, silvery sided Atlantic salmon — escapees that turned up in their nets again Monday. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is urging the public to catch as many of the fish as possible, with no limit on size or number. The fish are about 10 pounds each. No one knows yet how many escaped. But the net had some 3 million pounds of fish in it when it imploded about 4 p.m. Saturday, said Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the WDFW click here to read the story 15:05
Farmed Salmon on the loose! Storm damages an aquaculture pen at the mouth of Shelburne Harbour
Provincial fisheries inspectors are investigating the escape of possibly hundreds of market-ready salmon from an aquaculture pen at the mouth of Shelburne Harbour. Employees at Cooke Aquaculture noticed a breach in one of the company’s enclosures last Wednesday and notified the province. They discovered some fish had escaped two days later, said Krista Higdon, a spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Cooke spokeswoman Nell Halse said it appeared wind and waves associated with recent winter storms knocked over one of the moorings and that created a breach in one of the enclosures. She said the company was still trying to determine how many fish might have slipped free. continue reading here 17:34
Fish farms a necessity: minister – It’s time to get this crap out of the water and into industrial parks
Farmed fish are here to stay as wild fish stocks have come under increasing pressure worldwide, says Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell. Colwell responded Thursday to a federal audit tabled before parliament that warned the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had not yet crafted a plan to restore 12 of 15 wild fish stocks deemed to be in critical condition. “The real issue is we don’t have enough wild fish stocks. We’re probably fishing worldwide to the maximum it can be,” Colwell told the Chronicle Herald Thursday. Read the story here
The Minister is using fear monger tactics to push open pen aquaculture as the savior of humanity, but, at what cost? If this is as he say’s, and he cares about environmental issues, there is only one answer, and it is to remove this industry from the ocean and into enclosed facility’s on land in industrial parks that keep wild fish segregated from the chemicals and waste generated by this industry. Large concrete tanks with the ability to treat the waste is the only answer. Cooke Aquaculture seems to have plenty of money to buy into fishery’s in the US, and other country’s while they wreak havoc on area’s that they conduct their business, perhaps they should invest in enclosed land based fish farms. Perhaps the Minister should do the right thing instead of boosting profits and environmental destruction for the open pen aquaculture industry. 10:48
A renewed aquaculture lease for Kelly Cove Salmon stirs up Shelburne Harbour neighbours
A renewed aquaculture lease for Kelly Cove Salmon in Shelburne Harbour is raising local ire before the first fish is in the water. The Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture has set an August 19 deadline for public comment on lease 0602, a 10-year licence and 20-year lease for a 20-hectare suspended cage cultivation of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. Shelly Hipson lives in the nearby village of Atlantic and she has a laundry list of objections to the Sandy Point site, including the size of the 0602 farm. Hipson cites concerns for the local lobster industry, and a February 2014 letter to the province from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick that found part of the harbour floor in the area was essentially dead. “Where do we think that’s going, excrement from a million fish? If my septic was running out into the harbour I’d be charged,” Hipson said. Read the story here 12:25
Cooke Aquaculture of Canada will purchase Icicle Seafoods
Cooke Aquaculture, a Canadian fisheries firm based in New Brunswick, said May 9 that the company has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Icicle Seafoods. The transaction is anticipated to close in less than 30 days once all regulatory and legal matters have been completed, the company said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Icicle, which began as Petersburg Fisheries Inc. in Southeast Alaska in 1965, is currently owned by the private equity firm Paine & Partners, with headquarters in Foster City, CA. With the acquisition, the Cooke group of companies will produce over 275,000 metric tons of seafood annually and generate $1.8 billion in annual sales, Cooke said. Glenn Cooke, president of Cooke Seafood, described the deal as “an exciting venture for us as it will add a well-respected fishery to our family businesses. Read the rest here 12:15
Cooke looking to buy Icicle Seafoods Alaska-based wild salmon processing in Alaska and whitefish operations
Acquisitive Canadian seafood entrepreneur Glenn Cooke is said to be closing in on a deal for US farming, fishing and processing firm Icicle
, which New York-based private equity Paine and Partners is desperately trying to offload. Cooke, who owns fish farming operations in Canada, the US, Chile, Scotland and Spain, has been linked to a move for the Icicle Washington State salmon farm ever since the start of the sale process, which got underway at the start of 2015. Now, Cooke is negotiating a deal for the salmon farm, as well as its Alaska-based wild salmon processing in Alaska and whitefish operations,,, Read the rest here 22:50
Farmed Atlantic Salmon make Seafood Watch’s ‘avoid’ list
Environmentalists and an aquaculture company disagree about the findings of a new report from the United States that advises consumers to avoid some farm-raised Atlantic Salmon. “It’s not surprising, it’s clear that we need to have improvements in Canada. If we want to even be nearly equivalent to some of the better practices that are happening in Norway and Scotland,” said Susanna Fuller, a Marine Conservation Coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre. Read the rest here 16:34
Nova Scotia to Cooke Aquaculture: Pay up on $18m loan
The provincial government is calling in Cooke Aquaculture’s $18-million loan. The money comes from a major loan announced by the former NDP government in 2012. The government was to make up to $25 million available for the company, $9 million of it forgivable, if Cooke could expand a feed mill in Truro, build a salmon hatchery in Digby County and a processing plant in Shelburne, and create up to 400 jobs across the province. “We fully expect Cooke Aquaculture to live up to their component of that agreement,”,,, Read the article here 10:37
Canada’s Cooke Aquaculture buy’s Wanchese Fish Company, launches new company
This deal and investment into the wild fishery comes in tandem with the creation of a new company,Cooke Seafood USA Inc, which “will provide another platform for future growth within the capture fishery”, the Cooke family, owners of Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture, said in a release on Friday morning. Wanchese is a harvester, processor and distributor with the capacity to harvest 4,000 tons of wild scallops, flounder and other seafood products each year. Founded in 1936, it owns a fleet of 15 vessels capable of providing product fresh to the US,,, Read the rest here 14:56
Cooke Aquaculture says vandals cut fish pens loose in St. Marys Bay
Nova Scotia RCMP are investigating a vandalism complaint filed by New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture after the company says vandals cut loose some of its fish pens. Nell Halse, a spokeswoman for Cooke Aquaculture, says the company received reports from the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre on Thursday that a salmon pen was floating free from a fallow salmon farm in St. Marys Bay, near Digby. Our guys have been out there last night and have brought it back to the site and resecured it,” said Halse. “It was clearly cut away from the site.” Read the rest here 16:12
Liberal fisheries bill a total betrayal – Wendy Watson Smith
Changes to the Fisheries Act that the Liberals are trying to push through will be devastating for coastal communities and do not resemble at all the recommendations of an exhaustive panel study conducted by Doelle-Lahey. Cooke Aquaculture is preparing to restock a site at Jordan Bay that just suffered a massive fish kill. Meanwhile, communities are living with dead and diseased fish on their shores, displaced lobster fishers, dead zones in their harbours that do not recover, equipment debris tangled in lobster traps and polluted harbours. photo Read the rest here 13:28
Calais man gets year of probation, fined $5,000 for lying about pesticide sales that killed hundreds of lobsters
Clyde Eldridge, 65, owner of local feed and pet store C&E Feeds, also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Eldridge waived indictment in November and admitted that he lied in 2010 when questioned by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials as part of an investigation into the illegal use of cypermethrin on the New Brunswick side of Passamaquoddy Bay in the previous year. The pesticide application killed hundreds of lobsters off Deer Island and Grand Manan in November and December 2009, according to a previously published report. Read the rest here Cooke Aquaculture admits to pesticide violations here 16:23
Carlos Rafael in talks to sell scallop vessels to Canadian Cooke Aquaculture
In a deal put together by Sam Daniels, currently president of Wanchese and one of the owning families, Canadian salmon farmer Cooke is also in talks to buy Rafael’s 12 New Bedford-based scallop vessels, sources said. For Rafael, part of the deal is that the vessels leave Massachusetts. “I don’t want them to bring in $1 for this state again.” He then plans to sell his fleet of 37 working groundfish vessels, he said. This would leave only 11 left in the port. What a guy! Read the rest here 17:46
Wanchese’s Daniels family in agreement on sale to Canadian Cooke Aquaculture – What about the US Quota?
Sources have questioned how Cooke, also family-owned and based in Blacks Harbor, New Brunswick, is going to structure buying some or all of Wanchese, seeing as non-Americans can only own 25% of US fishing quotas. The company owns 11 fishing vessels in the US, catching scallops, fish, and shrimp up and down the East Coast, as well as two operating for sea scallops in Argentina. One source said maybe Glenn Cooke, co-founder and CEO of Cooke, means to keep some of the Daniels family on to be the face of the US entity used to acquire other US quota assets. “Interesting and very tricky,” he said of this. Read the rest here 14:01
NS: Cooke Aquaculture must pay back $9-million provincial loan, with interest
“The forgiveness of the loan to Cooke Aquaculture depends on the company’s ability to meet certain targets by the end of 2015, including 400 new FTEs and four new projects – farm operations in Shelburne and Digby, a new salmon hatchery in Digby, expanding a feed mill in Truro, establishing a fish processing facility in Shelburne,” wrote Economic and Rural Development and Tourism spokesperson Sarah Levy-MacLeod in an email to the Coast Guard. “We expect the company to fulfill the terms and conditions in the original agreement.” Read the rest here 11:44
Cooke Aquaculture’s $150M expansion delayed by years – blames New Democratic Party’s moratorium for delays
Atlantic Canada’s largest aquaculture company — Cooke Aquaculture — says it has been forced to delay key elements in a $150-million expansion planned for Nova Scotia by several years. New Brunswick-based Cooke blames a moratorium on new aquaculture sites imposed by the previous New Democratic government in 2013, when it ordered a study of aquaculture. Read the rest here 14:01
Fish-farming feud: Senate awash in industry propaganda
Re: “Salmon farming a ray of hope for our region,” (Opinions online, June 2). This article by Pamela Parker, executive director, Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, is totally one-sided. This is just what companies like Cooke Aquaculture want to hear. It also feeds the misconceptions of governments and bureaucracies with their blind eyes, deaf ears and closed minds. Read more here 10:29
Cooke Aquaculture announces $203M Scottish purchase
New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture is buying the Scottish subsidiary of Marine Harvest in the Orkney and Shetland Islands in a deal worth $203 million. The company operates several salmon farms and a feed mill in Nova Scotia. Read more here 14:58
Harbour Breton salmon plant won’t reopen
A salmon processing plant in Harbour Breton will not be re-opening anytime soon, although the building itself may yet have a future in the fishery. Cooke Aquaculture said it has been told by its landlord, the Barry Group, that its lease will not be renewed. The handover date will be Jan. 31. Read more@cbcnews 12:45
Already, I’m skeptical. Dalhousie professor to probe effects of aquaculture business
Jon Grant doesn’t much care for the taste of Atlantic salmon. But the Dalhousie University oceanographer is passionate about Atlantic Salmon farming. He says critics who argue it destroys the environment are relying on “rumour.” Half of the money comes from a major Maritime business, Cooke Aquaculture, and the other half from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), which spent a year vetting the long-time Dalhousie professor and his research proposal. It is the first time that industry and a university have worked together so closely in this area. more@globeandmail 21:44
