Cooke plans for Washington trout farm may face another challenge
Conservation group says it will file appeal
“The question at the heart of this lawsuit is whether or not the agency’s environmental review of the science sufficiently considered the risks posed by Cooke’s new project.” Kurt Beardslee executive director of WFC
A plan by New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture to raise steelhead trout in Puget Sound, Washington State, may face another legal challenge.
In January, the company was awarded a five-year permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to farm steelhead trout in Puget Sound.
That decision, however, may be challenged in court by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Wild Fish Conservancy, the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth.
In their initial court challenge in a lower court in February, the groups argued the department had violated state law by issuing the permit without conducting an environmental impact statement, or a scientific review fully analyzing the potential environmental impacts to local species, water quality and the overall health of the Puget Sound ecosystem.
Earlier this month, the Superior Court in Washington rejected the groups' argument, saying the court did not have the scientific knowledge to overturn the fish department's decision.
Joel Richardson, vice-president of public relations for Cooke Inc., told Saltwire that in that ruling Judge Johanna Bender said the department did follow the applicable law in issuing the permit.
Richardson said the judge determined that the department followed applicable law in issuing the permit, that the department's consideration of Atlantic salmon aquaculture data was a proper consideration of environmental factors in a manner sufficient in compliance with the procedural requirements of the State Environmental Policy Act, and that the department was correct in issuing the permit to Cooke.
The conservancy said Nov. 23 it will file an appeal in the state's Supreme Court.
In a news release last week, the group noted that in May of this year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made a new determination under the Endangered Species Act that net pens are likely to adversely affect Esa-listed salmon, steelhead and rockfish in Puget Sound.
According to the WFC, in the public consultation period of the assessment process, the department received over 3,500 comments.
“These comments overwhelmingly called for the agency to withdraw their initial decision and conduct a full environmental impact statement before permitting Cooke's new project,” the WFC states on its website.
“The question at the heart of this lawsuit is whether or not the agency's environmental review of the science sufficiently considered the risks posed by Cooke's new project,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of the WFC, in a release.
Seafood Source, a media company that reports on fishing industry developments around the world, noted in a story last week that the WFC won a settlement against Cooke in 2017 for US$2.75 million after a net pen collapse released more than 300,000 farmed
Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. The company was also fined US$332,000 by the state's Department of Ecology.
Richardson told Saltwire the company continues to work with its jointventure partner, Jamestown S'klallam Tribe, to farm trout in Puget Sound.
"The partners are working together to establish trout aquaculture operations in Port Angeles Harbor.”