Cooke agrees $332,000 fine over fish escape

COOKE Aquaculture will pay a $332,000 US penalty following the collapse of its Atlantic salmon farm near Washington’s Cypress Island in 2017.

The Canadian owned company lost around 250,000 fish in the accident, which it blamed on natural conditions. A subsequent report by Washington state’s Department of Ecology said the company had been negligent, a claim it rejected.

Cooke has agreed to the penalty on the grounds that 80 per cent of the proceeds will go towards a fisheries enhancement project in the state.

The escape incident led to a political storm and the eventual decision by state legislators to phase out non-native fish farming, starting from 2022.

Existing leases for Atlantic salmon farms won’t be renewed when they expire. Cooke, which farms salmon in the eastern US state of Maine, as well as in Canada, Scotland and Chile, bought its farms in Puget Sound in 2016 at a reported cost of more than $70 million.