Traditionally Bainbridge Island residents take pride in the opportunity to observe killer whales as they pass through Rich Passage. However, last week Bainbridge residents watched with apprehension as a group of transient orca whales swam in dangerous proximity to one of Cooke Aquaculture’s net pens where the industry was operating their harvesting vessel.
By exposing Chinook and other wild salmon populations to harmful pathogens, rampant pollution, and escaped farmed fish, open water net pens pose an enormous threat to the survival of the northwest’s killer whales, especially the critically endangered Southern Residents. But beyond this direct impact to the whale’s primary food source, open water net pens also expose orcas to a variety of other environmental risks.
Often located in killer whale and salmon migration corridors, net pens require Southern Residents and other whales to navigate dangerous underwater infrastructure such as long cables protruding far out from the pens underwater.
The industry’s vessels, such as the harvester boat observed in this video, expose migrating whales to underwater noise pollution at close distances that further reduce the whale’s ability to successfully navigate and locate prey.
And, as Washington strives to reduce toxins that further imperil emaciated Southern Residents, this industry has a poor environmental track record when it comes to abiding by local and federal water quality laws.
In 2018, Cooke Aquaculture was fined $8,000 for unlawfully discharging pollution at this same Rich Passage site, and, among other charges, failing to correct water quality violations when directed.
The science is clear, commercial open water net pens are incongruent with wild salmon and killer whale recovery.