The Washington State Department of Ecology last week held its first public hearing on the renewal of permits for four Cooke Aquaculture net pen facilities in the state.
Laurie Niewolny, the Department of Ecology’s permit and aquaculture specialist, said that the permits are being reviewed because Washington has put new water monitoring policies into effect in response to the August 2017 collapse at Cooke’s Cypress Island site, which led to the escape of more than a quarter-million non-native Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound.
“Regularly scheduled net pen inspections and cleaning are now a requirement,” she said. Niewolny added that the net pens would be subject to video surveys held underwater as well as monitoring of dissolved oxygen levels.
Department of Ecology Southwest Region Section Manager Rich Doenges said that state agencies were working with Cooke to ensure that farming materials, structures, and equipment were removed from the ocean floor at the spot of the collapse at Cypress Island.
Comments on the permits will be heard until 25 February, after which the state will make a final determination on the permits. Last Wednesday’s hearing was held via webinar, but the comment period will also include two more public hearings: one in Anacortes, Washington, and one on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
The facilities requiring permit renewals are at Clam Bay, Fort Ward, Orchard Rocks, and Hope Island. All the sites will close by 2022, in accordance with the ban on farming net pen farming of non-native finfish species signed into law by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in March 2018. The Canadian-based Cooke Aquaculture is the only company practicing Atlantic salmon farming in Washington state.
