Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 25 august 2017

Collapse at salmon farm renews debate about fish farming

By PHUONG LE, Wild Conservancy. Fish
Associated Press farms “are polluting ev-
SEATTLE (AP) — A marine ery single day a massive
net pen holding 305,000 amount of phosphorous
farmed Atlantic salmon and nitrogen into the wa-
collapsed recently, releas- ters that we’re trying to
ing thousands of fish into clean up.”
Puget Sound and renew- Halse said Cooke had ap-
ing concerns that a new plied for permits to up-
proposed salmon farm grade the net pens at the
could harm wild salmon Cypress Island to its level of
stock and cause other en- standards. It also plans to
vironmental damage. make investments in oper-
The release at Cooke ations across the state.
Aquaculture’s facility The Lummi Nation has
comes as the company is been so concerned about
proposing new expanded the fish escapes that tribal
commercial facility in the anglers have been try-
Strait of Juan de Fuca in ing to catch the Atlantic
Washington state. salmon before they enter
Canada-based Cooke, local rivers. The tribe de-
which operates five salmon clared a state of emer-
farms in Washington that it gency Thursday, saying the
acquired last year, would In this Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017 photo, Riley Starks of Lummi Island Wild shows three of the farm fish spill needs to be ad-
raised Atlantic salmon that were caught alongside four healthy Kings in Point Williams, Wash.
build 14 floating circular Associated Press dressed immediately. Tribal
net pens about 1 ½ miles officials are worried that
(1.61 kilometers) offshore. Ron Warren, who heads the While salmon farms have Halse, a Cooke spokes- farmed salmon will eat na-
It would move current op- Washington Department operated for more than woman. She said the com- tive fish or disturb its spawn-
erations from Port Angeles of Fish and Wildlife’s fish 30 years in Washington, pany called in experts ing grounds. Michael Rust,
Harbor and increase pro- program, said there’s no they still remain contro- last month to stabilize the science adviser with the
duction by 20 percent. The evidence the escaped fish versial in the Pacific North- salmon farm during high National Oceanic and At-
project is in the permitting pose a threat to native fish west where wild salmon tides, though no fish es- mospheric Administration’s
phase. Critics say the re- populations, either through reigns supreme. Alaska has caped then. “We put our aquaculture office, said
cent fish escape highlights disease or crossbreeding banned commercial fin- best expertise to stabiliz- farmed salmon tend to
potential risks of open-sea with Pacific salmon. fish aquaculture. Several ing this farm and we had be domesticated, raised
fish farming. They worry Still, he said the state wants counties in the state such no reason to believe that on feed and not used to
about water pollution from to protect native fish spe- as Whatcom County have it would have collapsed on catching fish or escaping
fish feed and the potential cies and have urged an- moved to limit commercial Sunday.” predators. Farmed salmon
for farmed fish to spread of glers to catch as many es- finfish aquaculture. Critics weren’t buying that are more likely to be prey
diseases and parasites to caped salmon, some up to Cooke blamed high tides reasoning, noting that tides than predator, he said.
wild fish. 10 pounds, as possible. and currents coincid- weren’t higher than unusu- He and others note that
“These are open net pens. Washington has the larg- ing with Monday’s solar al over the weekend. science and technology
They’re not isolated from est marine finfish aquacul- eclipse for the failure over “They’re trying to imply that advances have improved
surrounding environment,” ture industry in the U.S. with the weekend at its farm this was some unnatural fish farming practices in
said Chris Wilke, execu- farms producing about 17 off Cypress Island in Skagit natural event. This was ab- the U.S. over the decades
tive director of the Puget million pounds of Atlantic County. solute negligence on their and aquaculture op-
Soundkeeper Alliance, salmon each year, accord- “The ongoing tides were a part,” said Kurt Beardslee, erations must meet strict
which opposes the project. ing to the state. huge challenge,” said Nell executive director of the regulations.q