SEATTLE — Cooke Aquaculture has appealed the state Department of Natural Resources decision to terminate the company’s remaining net-pen fish farming leases in Washington.
In an appeal filed Wednesday in Thurston County Superior Court, the company alleged the leases were wrongfully denied, citing a Washington state Supreme Court ruling affirming farming native species of fish in state waters.
In Nov. 14 letters terminating Cooke’s net-pen leases in Rich Passage near Bainbridge Island and Hope Island in Skagit Bay, DNR gave the Canada-based company 30 days to wrap up steelhead farming and begin deconstructing their equipment.
DNR extended the deadline to Jan. 14 for the company to finish operations and until April 14 to remove its facilities and repair any environmental damage. The Hope Island lease expired in March. The Rich Passage lease expired in November.
Cooke, in a statement, said the demand to remove all equipment in a month was unreasonable, and the lease application denials were politically motivated.
In the appeal against both DNR and its top leader, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, Cooke asks the court to reinstate the leases and award damages for violating the company’s right to due process.
“Cooke Aquaculture knew well in advance when their lease was ending and had ample time to prepare operationally and financially for this decision. My denial of Cooke’s application is well supported by the law and their long track record of violating the terms of their leases,” Franz said in a statement. “Our marine ecosystem is too important to risk for private profits.”
Cooke, one of the world’s largest producers of farmed fish, is based in New Brunswick, Canada, with operations in Maine, Atlantic Canada, Chile, Scotland and Spain.
The company purchased all of Washington’s net pens in 2016.
After the 2017 spill at the company’s Cypress Island farm, DNR terminated the lease, and inspections of the company’s facilities elsewhere ramped up.
In Port Angeles, investigators found inspections that apparently weren’t in accordance with manufacturers’ recommendations or industry standards. DNR terminated that lease for failing to maintain the facility in a safe condition and operating in an unauthorized area. Cooke challenged the decision in court, and a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of state regulators.
The state Legislature in 2018 passed a law effectively phasing out net-pen farming of exotic species in Washington waters. Cooke had since pivoted to raise steelhead — a fish native to the region.
Some tribes and environmental groups have long pushed back against fish farming in the state’s waters, citing the risk of disease spread and nutrient release from fish food, among other things.
Earlier this year, a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggested raising fin fish in the marine environment wouldn’t “jeopardize the continued existence” of many native species, like chinook salmon, Hood Canal summer-run chum or Puget Sound steelhead.
But, according to the report, the fish farms were found to have potential adverse effects on the species and critical habitat.
Days after Franz terminated the net-pen leases, she penned an executive order banning all commercial net-pen fish farming in state waters, citing similar concerns.
