Ben Fisher

Reporting from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Ben Fisher is a Seattle-based freelance writer. Previously, he worked as night and copy editor at the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s largest English language newspaper, and as digital editor of Jewish Quarterly. He is fluent English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic.


Author Archive

Published on
March 23, 2018

Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Thursday, 22 March, signed a bill into law that will phase out Atlantic salmon and other non-native fish farming by 2025.  

Canada’s Cooke Aquaculture, the only company that farms Atlantic salmon fish farms in Washington state, was the target of the ban after more than a quarter-million non-native salmon escaped in August 2017 from a Cooke net-pen near Cypress Island, Washington.

"This bill will

Read More
Published on
March 21, 2018

Aqua-Spark, a fund that invests in sustainable aquaculture projects, has invested in Norway-based Hatch Accelerator 1.0, a first-of-its-kind program that aims to accelerate eight aquaculture businesses in 2018. 

Since its founding in 2015, The Netherlands-based investment fund has invested in nearly a dozen companies, including Calysta, a bio-tech company that works to make fish feed healthier and more environmentally friendly; Sogn Aqua, a

Read More
Published on
March 12, 2018

The minister of forest, land and natural resource operations, and rural development in British Columbia, Canada has called for moving open-net fish farms from the ocean to land-based operations. 

Doug Donaldson stated publicly that though the option to ban Atlantic salmon farming is not currently available to him, as it’s regulated by the federal government, he is in favor of phasing out ocean-based salmon farming in favor of closed

Read More
Published on
March 1, 2018

It has not been a great six months for Cooke Aquaculture, the Canadian fish farming company responsible for a Atlantic salmon net-pen farm collapse off of Cypress Island, in Washington state.

A half-year after the collapse, Washington has moved to ban Atlantic salmon fishing outright. A bill passed both houses of the state’s legislature in February, a move that could cost Cooke – the largest salmon-farming company in the state

Read More
Published on
February 23, 2018

Cooke Aquaculture CEO Glenn B. Cooke traveled to Olympia, Washington, the state’s capital, in an attempt to sway lawmakers not to enact a ban on Atlantic salmon aquaculture.

The New Brunswick, Canada-based fish farming firm Cooke leads was responsible for the escape of a quarter-million non-native fish into Puget Sound in August 2017, leading the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives to consider bills to phase out and then

Read More
Published on
February 21, 2018

A bill that would phase out existing Atlantic salmon aquaculture in the state of Washington by 2025 and would also ban new leases, was approved by the Washington State House of Representatives and is expected to be signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee. 

The bill, which was approved by the Washington State Senate by a 35-12 vote earlier in February, was introduced in the aftermath of the escape of over a quarter-million Atlantic salmon

Read More
Published on
February 12, 2018

The Washington State Senate has voted by a wide margin of 35-12 to ban the farming of Atlantic salmon once existing leases for the cultivation of the non-native fish have expired. 

The legislation was endorsed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, who called Atlantic salmon farming “a risk that is intolerable.” 

The bill is now set to be voted on by the Washington State House, and would then go to Inslee’s desk to be

Read More
Published on
February 7, 2018

Lawmakers from Washington and Oregon, including U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley, have come out in opposition to a federal plan that would allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of their states.

Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a plan to expand offshore drilling in nearly all U.S. coastal waters in the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific oceans.

Citing the importance of the coastal waters of the

Read More
Published on
February 1, 2018

State investigators are claiming that Cooke Aquaculture tried to cover up the scale of the August fish farm collapse near Cypress Island, Washington, that sent hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon into the Puget Sound. 

The report, released this Tuesday, 30 January by officials at the Washington state departments of Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, and Natural Resources, accuses Cooke of negligence in regard to maintenance of its fish pens

Read More
Published on
January 31, 2018

Three widespread pesticides used in commercial farming in the United States are wreaking havoc on salmon populations, according to a report released by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.

The insecticides chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon, used on everything from broccoli to cotton to strawberries, are affecting 38 different species of endangered salmon and are causing negative effects on 37 “critical habitat” areas for

Read More