Tag Archives: Cooke Aquaculture Pacific
Canadian firm’s steelhead trout farm plan under the microscope after salmon escapes
Last month, a net pen used for fish farming and operated by Cooke Aquaculture Pacific began to dip below the surface off Bainbridge Island. A hole in a pontoon left the structure’s southeast corner partially submerged. Repairs were eventually made. But now as the New Brunswick-based Cooke seeks to farm steelhead trout — instead of the nonnative Atlantic salmon that state law will soon ban — the incident has caught the attention of state regulators. >click to read< 12:58
Washington tribe partners with Cooke to farm Northwest native species
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is pleased to announce a joint venture with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific. The joint venture will initially work to rear sablefish (black cod) and sterile triploid, all-female rainbow trout. The venture will require reinstatement of the farm lease at Port Angeles, in exchange for significant investment by the venture in new infrastructure and local jobs in the area. The two partners will work together to rear these Northwest native species in Port Angeles Harbor. >click to read< 13:23
State kills Atlantic salmon farming in Washington
Atlantic salmon net-pen farming will be phased out in Washington by 2025 under legislation passed by the state Senate on Friday after a tough floor fight and fancy parliamentary footwork. With at least six lobbyists in a last-minute campaign, Cooke Aquaculture Pacific worked hard until the last vote Friday to keep its Atlantic salmon net-pen industry alive in Washington. But in the end the bill, which was buried under a blizzard of amendments, each one defeated, passed on a vote of 31-16. Lawmakers steamrollered through amendments by opponents,,, >click to read<15:51
Puget Sound region’s Atlantic salmon fish farms could be headed for final harvest
The salmon-farming industry in the United States got its start right here in the Puget Sound region in the 1970s with experiments to raise salmon perfectly pan-sized or just right to fit the slot of a TV dinner. Union Carbide, then Campbell’s Soup, and a string of other entrepreneurs eventually decided docile, domesticated Atlantic salmon fattened up fastest and best in the open-water net pens they were test-piloting in Puget Sound. The industry really took off when federal fisheries scientists, with more than 1 million jilted Atlantic salmon eggs intended for restocking depleted East Coast streams, instead gave them to private industry. >click to read< 10:27
State of Washinton cancels lease at site of salmon net-pen collapse
Washington state officials on Sunday canceled a lease with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific at the site where net pens holding farmed Atlantic salmon collapsed last summer, releasing tens of thousands non-native fish into Puget Sound. The decision comes days after a multi-agency state investigation found the Canada-based company negligent for failing to adequately clean its nets, saying that directly contributed to the net-pen failure in August at the facility. >click to read< 17:54
Canadian government says chances are minimal that virus will spread from farmed to wild salmon
Canadian fisheries officials say their research concludes there are minimal risks to sockeye salmon in the Fraser River in British Columbia of an infectious virus from Atlantic salmon farms transferring to wild populations. Current fish health management practices such as vaccination and eradication of infected fish help to minimize the risk, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Ottawa. The advice in the report on infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) was developed by consensus of the peer review group of 39 experts from various disciplines, Canadian officials announced during a teleconference from Ottawa on Dec. 20. click here to read the story 17:47
Violations prompt Washington state to cancel Atlantic salmon farm lease at Port Angeles
Cooke Aquaculture Pacific has lost the lease for its Atlantic salmon net-pen farm in Port Angeles and must shut down and remove it, said Hilary Franz, state commissioner of public lands, who terminated Cooke’s lease. The farm, operated by a series of owners since 1984, currently holds nearly 700,000 Atlantic salmon. Franz said the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would work with other state agencies to enforce an orderly shutdown and complete removal of the farm. Franz said her decision is final. “There is no room for negotiation.” click here to read the story 14:24
After Atlantic salmon spill, fish farms’ future under attack on both sides of border
Cooke Aquaculture Pacific knew it had problems at its Cypress Island fish farm before the catastrophic failure that spilled tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. “The farm site No. 2 was identified as the first priority for upgrades. We knew it was at the end of its life cycle and it needed upgrades right away, and we were in the process of doing that,” company spokesman Chuck Brown said this week. But the company never got the chance. Instead, the farm capsized the weekend of Aug. 19, with 305,000 Atlantic salmon inside. The company collected 142,176 in all from its nets. The rest escaped.,,, The state already has said it won’t allow new or expanded farms until further review, and 20 Western Washington tribes with treaty-protected fisheries say they want Puget Sound farms shut down entirely. click here to read the story 10:29
B.C. First Nations occupy a second salmon farm as company raises safety concerns – click here to read the story
Fugitive Farmed Atlantic salmon ‘heading to every river in Puget Sound’
The Lummi Nation is marshaling a mop-up of thousands of fugitive Atlantic salmon in the tribe’s territorial waters, and the Swinomish chairman has called for a shutdown of the farmed-salmon industry in Puget Sound after last weekend’s spill. Swinomish fishermen caught farmed Atlantic salmon in the Skagit River on Wednesday night, as the fish continued to disperse through the Puget Sound, said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. He also received a report of an Atlantic salmon caught off Alki Point on Thursday afternoon. “These fish are headed to every river in Puget Sound,” Cladoosby said. “We have been saying all along it was not a question of if, but when, this would happen. click here to read the story 23:27
