Activists rally in Seattle for end to large-scale fish farming operations

SEATTLE — Activists in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Portland, Maine, organized Wednesday to call for a stop to large-scale aquaculture developments that carry out breeding, raising, and harvesting of fish, shellfish, or plants.

The activists called on President Joe Biden to revoke Executive Order 13921, a Trump-era order that “shortcuts the regulatory process for developing industrial aquaculture facilities in federal waters without Congressional oversight,” according to a press release from the activists. The group, called Don’t Cage Our Oceans, is a nationwide coalition of organizations and businesses committed to fighting offshore fish farming.

On Thursday, members of the group gathered on Lake Union near a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility and delivered more than 2,500 petition signatures, over 800 of which came from Washington.

“Offshore finfish farming does not benefit fishing communities, the environment, or healthy food production – the only ones who profit are a handful of corporations,” said Sam Cowles, an organizer with Don’t Cage Our Oceans. “These polluting facilities simply have no place in US waters.”

An aquaculture net collapsed off Cypress Island in 2017, resulting in around a quarter million non-native Atlantic salmon being released into Puget Sound. Investigators concluded the company who owned the facility, Cooke Aquaculture, failed to properly clean the nets.

The excessive buildup of mussels and other organisms ended up triggering the collapse. The company was fined more than $330,000 by the state and their lease was terminated several months later.

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