Despite strong public opinion against continuing aquaculture operations in Puget Sound, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife approved a permit to do just that.
See you in court
Four nonprofit organizations sued the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) this week over its decision to grant a permit allowing Cooke Aquaculture Pacific to farm steelhead in Puget Sound and the greater Salish Sea.
Then there is this bit of nuclear grade bullshit.
Kurt Grinnell, a tribal council member and the CEO of Jamestown Seafood and Aquaculture, said the tribe sees great economic opportunity in raising steelhead in net pens.
Steelhead were once abundant in nearby streams, Grinnell said.
“In the last couple of decades, it slowed way down,” he said. Raising native stocks “will help offset losses,” provide food locally and could boost fish processing in Port Angeles, he said.
Of course, the aquaculture talking heads are not happy.
Joel Richardson, a spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, declined to comment.
Jeanne McKnight, of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, in an emailed statement, described the environmental groups’ action as a “frivolous lawsuit” intended to “delay the project,” and added that the lawsuit would harm the region’s seafood economy.
FYI, Jim Parsons General Manager of Cooke Aquaculture Pacific serves on the Board of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance.
LINK (via: The Seattle Times)
Puget Sound and its endangered marine life can’t afford the pollution, pesticides, viruses, and parasites that are a by-product of open net-pen aquaculture. The WDFW, Cooke, and their tribal partners assure us that these net pens won’t fail, their steelhead are “mostly”sterile and their farmed steelhead will be good for the local seafood economy. What they neglect to say is that all the other problems associated with open-net pens would still exist with steelhead as they do with Atlantic salmon.
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