State agency oks permit for fish farm off Hope Island

Steve Edwards is known for his soft-spoken, consensus-building approach.

But the Swinomish Tribal Senate chairman has taken a more strident stance in response to recent authorization by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for Cooke Aquaculture to stock 365,000 triploid steelhead at its net pen facility near Hope Island within traditional tribal fishing areas.

Edwards termed the WDFW action “reckless” in a statement issued last Friday.

“WDFW has completely disregarded the significant interference with Swinomish’s treaty fishing rights caused by Cooke’s net pen throughout this process,” said Edwards, himself a longtime tribal fisherman.

“It’s irresponsible and it’s wrong,” he insisted.

Edwards said the net pen sits off one of Swinomish’s most sacred cultural sites and puts at risk wild Skagit steelhead and chinook salmon designated as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“The Salish Sea deserves better,” Edwards said.

Swinomish Tribal Community Environmental Policy Manager Amy Trainer echoed Edwards’ sentiments on Monday, calling the WDFW decision “very troubling.”

“I think Chairman Edwards has done a very good job of addressing the major concerns,” added Trainer, who said moving young native steelhead from a hatchery to the local marine net pen facility is fraught with risks.

There remain fresh memories of the 2017 net pen collapse and escape of 300,000 non-native Atlantic salmon from a Cooke operation off Cypress Island. That led state lawmakers to begin phasing out non-native fish farming.

The firm responded two years ago by proposing conversion of its facilities to a native species and raising female lab-sterilized fish.

Edwards alleged Cooke has been slow to confer with Swinomish about its plans for the Hope Island facility.

“Cooke has never reached out to Swinomish until two days ago,” Edwards said. “They simply have not even tried to work with us.”

Cooke Aquaculture made application for its WDFW permit to move hatchery steelhead to the Hope Island site in June.

“The Hope Island net pen,” said Edwards, “interferes with our way of life and needs to be removed, not revived.”

Aquaculture, the controlled cultivation of species, was designed to help meet growing demand for seafood – with its advocates envisioning a “Blue Revolution” akin to the “Green Revolution” that transformed agriculture in the 20th century.

It has always been a source of controversy here.

There was much opposition among Snee Oosh area residents when net pens were initially proposed for Skagit Bay in the late 1980s, with concerns raised about potential environmental, aesthetic and siting impacts, and critics noting that the permitting process for aquaculture projects was much more stringent elsewhere.

But, at that time, science sided with net pens. Biologists joined aquaculture specialists in providing statements to Skagit County commissioners in November 1987 supporting fish farms, in some cases contending there was no evidence of pollution nor incidence of disease associated with those facilities.

Still others, including then-Swinomish Tribal Community General Manager Nick Zaferatos, addressed aquaculture-related employment opportunities.

Nearly 35 years later, though, Edwards is taking WDFW to task for having “prioritized Cooke’s financial interests over the safety of our waters and is placing our salmon and habitat at risk.

“It is a needless risk,” he stressed.

The state Supreme is slated to review Cooke’s WDFW permit next month, Edwards said.

On another front, he said Swinomish is urging the state Department of Natural Resources to deny Cooke Aquaculture a new aquatic lands lease.