On Thursday Cooke Aquaculture filed a motion to drop their appeal against the state of Washington. The appeal was their last effort at reinstating their net-pen licenses to farm steelhead trout which were revoked by DNR in November 2022. The decision by Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, to terminate Cooke's licenses was due to the company's long track record of lease violations.
"Canadian seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture has filed a motion to dismiss its appeal against the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) seeking to reinstate leases for steelhead trout fish farms in Puget Sound.
This move comes after DNR’s announcement on November 14, 2022, that they were refusing to renew Cooke’s leases for these sites."
Cooke alleges that DRN didn't provide the necessary records for a fair appeal hearing led to their motion to dismiss the appeal.
“Wild fish catches cannot meet the projected demand for seafood, and aquaculture is essential to preserving wild fisheries,” wrote the company
This is a media line heavily relied on by the industry and Cooke but we've never seen their sources that back it up. Where is the data supporting their claims of projected world wide dependancy on farmed salmon (or trout) and what populations of the world are they referring to? Where is the independent source for the data supporting claims that net-pen finfish farming is saving wild fish populations - compared to the amount of wild fish the industry takes for fish feed and the marine habitat their operations jeopardize?
Given that the article is from an Industry publication you won't find questioning of company statements here but we hope the general public who read information like this have the awareness to question blanket claims put out by global corporate industry.
View the full article here.