October 6, 2017 — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has granted approval for Cooke Aquaculture to rear 1 million more Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound after one of the largest fish-farm escapes the firm has faced in history.
In August the company’s Cypress Island net-pen facility near the San Juan Islands collapsed and released tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound and nearby waters.
Following the net pen collapse, Governor Jay Inslee directed that no permits be issued for new aquaculture net pens while the incident was being investigated.
However, current laws and administrative rules do not give state regulators the authority to deny Cooke’s permit to move healthy fish into an existing net pen.
In a prepared statement, Inslee said he had asked the company to withdraw its permit application to move 1 million juvenile Atlantic salmon from the company’s hatchery in Rochester, Thurston County, to its existing net-pen facility in Puget Sound at Clam Bay, along Rich Passage. He also expressed disappointment to know the firm decided to go ahead while thousands of salmon that had escaped have not been recovered yet.