The Board of Natural Resources in the U.S. state of Washington is set to vote on a ban on commercial net pen aquaculture in state waters, providing firmer legal standing for a prohibition which was implemented unilaterally by executive order in 2022.
The movement to ban finfish farming off the coast of Washington gained momentum after the 2017 collapse of a Cypress Island fish farm owned by fish-farming firm Cooke, which released hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon into the Puget Sound. In response, the state took individual action against the company, ending that lease and fining Cooke; the legislature then voted to end Atlantic salmon farming in the state, forcing aquaculture companies to shift to species like steelhead trout.
However, many opponents of finfish farming wanted the state to take further action against the practice, seeing the 2017 incident as reason enough to end all net pen aquaculture operations in the state. Washington Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Hilary Franz agreed, issuing an executive order in 2022 to ban the practice.
“As we’ve seen too clearly here in Washington, there is no way to safely farmed finfish in open sea net pens without jeopardizing our struggling native salmon,” Franz said at the time. “Commercial finfish farming is detrimental to salmon, orcas, and marine habitat. I’m proud to stand with the rest of the West Coast today by saying our waters are far too important to risk for fish farming profits.”
Both Cooke and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe launched ...
