A U.S. district court has sided with the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and local Washington state organizations opposing aquaculture development, finding nine shellfish operations were improperly approved.
CFS and the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat alleged the federal government did not properly vet nine shellfish operations in the state of Washington in a motion filed in 2025. The organizations claimed the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) hasn’t been properly analyzing the environmental impacts of shellfish aquaculture operations before approving them.
“This is a landmark victory for Washington's marine ecosystems, tribal communities, and the public's right to clean and accessible shorelines,” CFS Staff Attorney Kristina Sinclair said in a release. “We are gratified the Court has agreed with our arguments that the Corps unlawfully authorized these industrial operations without fully evaluating their significant adverse impacts on the environment. The Corps cannot hide behind an abbreviated permitting process to evade its core legal obligations.”
CFS claimed the Corps had improperly classified the shellfish operations as “minor,” and were using letters of permission to circumnavigate a 2019 court order that requires the government to fully analyze the environmental effects of shellfish operations. CFS said the court sided with the argument, and found the Corps violated federal law by relying on the streamlined permitting process.
The nine facilities in question, according to CFS, are “among the largest” operations in the area, where between 38,700 and 50,000 acres of tidelands are used for aquaculture. It argues the operations, which use PVC pipes, netting, and machinery, are causing harm to salmon habitat and water quality.
The defendants will be given an opportunity to object to the decision, but if it is sustained the permits granted to the nine shellfish operations will be “null and void” within 60 days, according to CFS, which will require an environmental assessment and public notice process.
The CFS has filed lawsuits against Washington’s aquaculture industry in the past. It was the force behind the 2019 court order it cited in its latest case, and also sued the Corps over “Nationwide Permit 48,” which was a general permit for shellfish aquaculture in Washington. The court revoked the permit in 2023, but according to the CFS the Corps has continued to use letters of permission to allow shellfish farming to continue without environmental analysis.
"The court correctly recognized that what the Industry and the Corps have been doing to Washington's tide lands with the excessive permitting of these industrial scale aquaculture activities is creating a proverbial death by a thousand cuts,” Karl Anuta, a lawyer with the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, said. “It has to stop, and some sort of rational balance in resource use needs to be restored.”
