Last week, the Washington Supreme Court heard a legal challenge filed by four conservation groups—including Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC)—on whether Cooke Aquaculture Pacific should have been granted its five-year permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to raise steelhead at their Hope Island facility in Puget Sound's Skagit Bay. They are awaiting the Court’s decision.
The WDFW permit was issued in January 2020 and is good for five years. If the name "Cooke Aquaculture" rings a bell, it's likely because of this event from August of 2017, in which Cooke's Cypress Island net-pen collapsed, releasing more than 200,000 Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. Hundreds of these very non-native salmon were later caught from Washington's Skagit River in November and December.
If Cooke survives this legal challenge, the company will still need the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to grant an extension of its Hope Island aquatic lands lease, which expires in March of 2022. Though DNR Communications Manager Joe Smillie says the agency is not likely to make a decision until after the end of 2021, the past four years has produced several contentious lawsuits between DNR and Cooke, often followed by combative public comments made by both sides.
"When I terminated Cooke’s lease, I did so based on clear evidence that the company failed to properly clean and maintain its facility," Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said in Spring of 2018, in reference to a lawsuit Cooke had filed against DNR over the termination. "I encourage Cooke to drop this baseless lawsuit and work with us to safely and quickly wind up its operations and vacate the site."
Cooke Aguaculture open-ocean salmon pens. Photo courtesy of National Fisherman