SUBMIT COMMENTS on cooke’s proposal

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has already reviewed and weighed in on Cooke Aquaculture’s proposal. Now they want to hear from you. Follow the instructions below to ensure the State hears your voice and concerns on this important issue.

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how to submit public comments

Using the documents below, draft your comments to the state explaining why you think this new proposal to rear biologically-altered steelhead/rainbow trout in industrial net pens will pose a significant and negative impact to Puget Sound.

We encourage you to review and use the information in the FAQ section and Our Sound, Our Salmon’s public comments to help inform you as you are drafting your comments. Your comments will be receive more serious consideration by WDFW if they address this specific proposal to transition from Atlantic salmon to biologically-altered steelhead/rainbow trout, and WDFW’s determination that this transition would not have a “significant adverse impact on the environment.”

The following are examples of language or topics you might address:

  • Urge WDFW to withdraw the current determination of non-significance and complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

  • Describe why you believe commercially rearing and harvesting biologically-altered steelhead/rainbow trout will pose “significant adverse impact on the environment,” and is even riskier than rearing Atlantic salmon

  • Describe why you believe the proposed mitigation is insufficient

Some of the major ways that this proposal creates significant adverse impacts to the environment:

  • Despite treatment to render the fish infertile, life finds a way and many fish in the pens will be capable of reproducing. When a net pen collapses, it will release more fertile female steelhead/rainbow trout than exist in many endangered wild steelhead runs.

  • When an escape happens, it will be nearly impossible to manage a recovery effort that removes farmed steelhead/rainbow trout and does no harm to endangered wild steelhead and bull trout, endangered and threatened salmon, endangered southern resident killer whales, and other protected wildlife in Puget Sound.

  • The surviving net pens were not designed for the dynamic conditions that prevail at their sites in Puget Sound, especially if you account for the region’s seismic risks. There is substantial risk of additional net pen failures like we saw in 2017, and the inspection and engineering requirements listed by the state are insufficient to mitigate that risk.

  • Fish reared in close quarters are likely to amplify diseases, and those diseases will spread easily to endangered wild steelhead through direct contact and through outflow of waste and flesh from the pens. Medicines introduced to control disease in the farmed fish will also affect wild salmon and trout swimming nearby, with potentially adverse effects on their health.

  • The process of feeding and harvesting steelhead/rainbow trout from the net pens attracts endangered wildlife to the vicinity of the pens, increasing the chances that orcas and other marine mammals will be harassed, and that endangered wild fish will be accidentally harvested or injured.

Email your final comments to SEPAdesk2@dfw.wa.gov with the subject line Comment on SEPA No. 19056. Comments are due by 5 pm on November 22.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

To review Cooke’s original proposal and the State’s Review of that proposal visit:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/licenses/environmental/sepa/open-comments

Use Our Sound, Our Salmon’s public comments while drafting your comments:
https://www.oursound-oursalmon.org/osos-sepa-comments