The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in the U.S. state of Washington, operates the shellfish firm Jamestown Seafood and the now-dormant Salish Fish. The tribe's steelhead and sablefish farming project – a joint venture with Cooke Aquaculture – is in the midst of a legal battle to restore what it claims is its treaty right to engage in net-pen aquaculture.
In December 2022, the Tribe filed suit against the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, arguing its issuance of a blanket ban on commercial net-pen aquaculture via executive order was unlawful. The Tribe argues that fish farming in the 21st century is environmentally safe as proven by science.
W. Ron Allen, chair and CEO of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, told SeafoodSource he is continuing to pursue commercial aquaculture opportunities for the Tribe, including ways to restore its right to use net-pens as an extension of their treaty seafood operations. He provided an update on the state of the Tribe’s lawsuit against Franz and the DNR.
SeafoodSource: The public perception in Washington of finfish farming was dinged with the escape from the Cooke farm in 2017, and there have been political repercussions from that. Can you succeed with a project in an industry that currently doesn't have widespread public support in the state?
Allen: Our Tribe feels that we have done a very good job of showing [it] is an excellent steward of the resources based on our historical cultural traditions. And, that we have taken progressive actions to counter the roots of climate change and basically correcting mistakes in poor stewardship practices that mankind has made over the years. That responsible image is what we're hanging our hat on. When anybody tries to say to us that we are going to engage in this industry at the expense of the degradation of the environment, we can counter that we’re not the first who are going to do something that people don't understand well, and that they should do their homework before they criticize.
Most folks are just headline readers and jump at their first impression. They don't want to read the facts because the facts don’t fit their perception. We even have Tribes who oppose us based on bad science notions, and some of them actually raise fish in pens themselves through their delayed fish pens. We would argue that they're hypocritical by saying what they're doing is not fish farming. And we're saying that their practices are the same – they’ve got pens with salmon in them, and they’re feeding them and raising them until they release them. So yeah, it's a bit of hypocrisy, but it fits their paradigm, I guess. We're just going to work to continue to campaign to correct misperceptions of the industry.
SeafoodSource: What's your feeling around the sentiment toward net-pen aquaculture or finfish aquaculture in Washington? Is the net-pen aquaculture industry in the state irretrievably gone or broken?
Allen: It's going to be awhile for us to get the industry back on its feet in the Salish Sea. For us, we're going to continue to pursue it and try to figure out how to make it work. We have lots of ideas consistent with how Cooke ran their operations, but it’s about economies of scale to make the business viable. So just knowing what it takes to make the industry work and the numbers to work for the industry relative to the hatchery, the number of pens, the production and processing necessary to make it work. Cooke doesn't know yet what they're going to do with their hatchery, which is essential to the success of fish-farming operations. It's mothballed at this point, and I haven't heard about what's happening with that facility, other than it's sitting there, basically.
SeafoodSource: If you win back the right to farm steelhead and sablefish in net-pens, would your tribe go it alone without Cooke as a partner, or would you look for another industry partner? How would you proceed if Cooke is not interested?
Allen: Well, Pacific Seafood located in Portland, Oregon, is in the industry and we talked to them briefly. They had a high interest in our steelhead production, but honestly, we haven't had any discussions with them since the revocation of the leases. If Cooke bailed, that might be something we might explore. But we haven't made those decisions yet. I think one of the biggest factors is the people and the expertise we lost with the revocation decision. There were companies that had been part of the industry in Washington state for over 40 years, so there was an extremely valuable knowledge base. That has not necessarily been lost at this point, but the longer time goes by, the less accessible those people are going to be to come back and help bring this back.
SeafoodSource: Is there a potential that you work with a land-based producer on your vision for aquaculture production? There was talk of a partnership with Salmon Evolution. Where does that stand now?
Allen: We met with Salmon Evolution to discuss their flow-through seawater farms, and yeah, we were interested. Their presentations demonstrate that it is viable and it's working in Norway – that was compelling. But, again, it's a numbers game and you have to have the right site for the operation and a fair amount of property to make it work. They're interested in this area because our Salish Sea water is the right temperature. I think there's a lot of pluses for the Northwest for this kind of operation. But it's a much more expensive venture and it will take a much longer period to cover the capital investment. But the short answer to you is we're interested, but we haven't heard from Salmon Evolution for a while.
SeafoodSource: If Salmon Evolution doesn't get back to you, are you going to be active in looking for other partners? How important is finfish aquaculture to your economic development plans?
Allen: Yes. Ultimately, S’Klallams are seafood people – we often refer to ourselves as salmon people. But due to the impacts of climate change, and growth of the human population that has led to environmental degradation, relying on natural salmon stocks is and will continue to be a struggle for the tribes. Our argument is that fish farming is a 21st century technique to allow us to continue to exercise our treaty rights to marine resources, but with a different approach to the same species we have relied on for generations.
SeafoodSource: If the state uses its authority to limit your choice of a partner to Sustainable Blue, as it has postured it might do, would that be a partnership you would be open to, or is that off the table?
Allen: The irony of it is, here's [Washington Commissioner of Public Lands] Hilary [Franz] trying to promote [Sustainable Blue] that has a different approach that hasn't necessarily shown itself to be viable yet. But nevertheless, we did have an outreach by the tribal liaison for the Department of Natural Resource who asked us if we'd be interested in working with the company and learning about the RAS system that she's promoting. And we answered that we'd be interested, because we need a RAS system to produce the smolt that it would take to stock our cages. But we haven't heard from them since.
From what I know about their technology, it's not scalable – that's the information we're getting that we've been able to dig into. I think there's a lot better options for partnerships out there. Our gut feeling on this is that Sustainable Blue is a company that's supported by Wild Fish Conservancy and [the] Chouinard [Foundation] and they're not being transparent. I understand their desire to hide their proprietary technology that they say they've developed – that makes sense, every company would want to do that if they've reinvented the wheel – but they could at least be open about their energy consumption, because it's our understanding that that type of a system would require a significant amount of electricity. Washington state passed strict standards recently on climate standards that have to do with energy consumption – it could be that they don't fit within that model. But I think the bigger issue behind that is that Hilary didn't go to several companies and say, “Hey, everybody, let's talk about what your company offers. What would be a good fit for Washington?”
SeafoodSource: Why do you think Franz has been so vocal about her opposition to net-pen farming in Washington?
Allen: Well, Hilary wants to be governor. She's a very politically motivated individual. She's quite charismatic and has made a splash in the natural resources and environmental protection sector. She gets traction, at least based on her rhetoric and her perceptions. And so bashing the fish-farming industry has become a tool in her toolbox to help promote an image that she wants this state’s voters to see. She wants them to think of her as a visionary regarding good management of resources. Our view is, everything she's doing is contrary to that image and that perception. I don't question her sincerity about her thinking she is a good manager of resources, but I just don't think that she's been the best at her job. And relative to our industry, she's done a terrible job. And she's shown her personal interest overrides the interest of industry, jobs, and opportunity for Tribes and other citizens in the state.
SeafoodSource: So short-term, what comes next for your Tribe in regard to aquaculture?
Allen: There will be a race to replace Hillary in her position, which we're excited about. We're waiting to see where all the candidates shake out on the issue of aquaculture, but we do know one of the candidates is State Senate Kevin Van De Wege, a moderate Democrat from the [Olympic] Peninsula. He's very supportive of the sport-fishing industry and was hesitant on aquaculture, but we took him out to the farm a while ago and he was impressed. He is coming around to the position that he will support our efforts to farm native species. We’re hoping we could have somebody elected that declares this [net-pen] executive order was bogus. Even if the courts ruled against us, the minute they rescind that order, game on, we're right back in it.
Separately, I really feel strongly that there's a good chance of prevailing in our suit. Hilary’s process for doing this was sloppy and clearly political. It is clear from what we're hearing that she didn’t follow the proper rulemaking process and her actions are outside her legal authority. DNR is actually a state landlord and not the scientific experts on aquaculture operations. That is the purview of the Department of Fish and Game along with the Department of Ecology. So I really do think that the chances of [us] getting back to farming steelhead is a strong probability. And that would be good for everybody in Washington.
There’s this notion that Hillary is building this huge base of environmentalists who hate fish farming. But what we're realizing is people don't understand the issue overall and they don't realize how sustainably fish can be grown. We don't think that political movement against aquaculture represents the interest of the general public. I think if people really get the facts and hear the whole story, they’ll say, “Well wait, why wouldn't we want to do this?” We definitely have some work to do to counter the damage that’s been done, but we are being optimistic and think it's going to happen. Jamestown believes that we’ll get a positive outcome all around.
Photo courtesy of Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
