Wednesday November 16, 2022
Fish Farmer —
In a statement announcing the decision, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said: “Today, we are returning our waters to wild fish and natural habitat. Today, we are freeing Puget Sound of enclosed cages.”
Washington, on the northwest Pacific coast of the USA, had already seen finfish net pen aquaculture reduced to just two sites – Cooke’s remaining steelhead trout farms in Rich Passage off Bainbridge Island and off Hope Island in Skagit Bay.
The Hope Island lease expired in March and has been in month-to-month holdover status since. The Rich Passage lease expired in November.
Canadian-owned Cooke has until December 14 to finish operations and begin removing its facilities, repairing any environmental damage.
The Washington state legislature in 2018 phased out Atlantic salmon farming, and the company has since shifted operations at its remaining leaseholds in Rich Passage and Hope Island to grow sterile steelhead trout.