By Nathan Pilling
Kitsap Sun
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Cooke Aquaculture’s Atlantic salmon net pens in Rich Passage have structural flaws, a state-commissioned inspection has found.
As a result, the state Department of Natural Resources, which leases the waters the company uses to farm the salmon, has issued Cooke Aquaculture a default letter, notifying the company that it has 60 days to repair the problems or it could face a lease termination.
According to the letter issued Monday, the inspection found a square-foot hole in one of the structure’s outer nets, as well as “severe” corrosion on parts of railings, supports and walkways.
DNR commissioned the inspection following the failure earlier this summer of Cooke’s Atlantic salmon growing operation at Cypress Island near Anacortes, which housed 305,000 fish. Following the collapse, about half of the fish escaped into Puget Sound, DNR estimates.
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, who leads DNR, said after considering the findings, the agency isn’t concerned about another major structural failure that would allow fish to escape from the Rich Passage site. But she said it wants to make sure the company is keeping its facilities at the “highest quality standards.”
Chuck Brown, a spokesman for Cooke, wrote in an email that, “Although these areas do not present structural or safety risks, Cooke Aquaculture agrees with DNR that the areas need repair, and was and continues to work on those repairs.”
The company acquired the facility in 2016, Brown noted, and is in the process of “upgrading it to meet the company’s high standards.”
Franz, a former Bainbridge Island city councilwoman who now lives in Seattle, said net pens at each of Cooke’s four sites throughout Puget Sound will be inspected to make sure the company is complying with its leases for those locations.
“In the wake of the Cypress Island failure, DNR has made a commitment to the public that we will be increasing our oversight over Cooke’s operations and doing a full inspection of their facilities that we have leases with,” Franz said. “As part of that, given my commitment to protecting Puget Sound and the challenges it faces and the challenges our Pacific salmon face, we need to make sure we are preventing any risks and taking steps to make sure the facilities we lease to are in good working order.”
Last week, state officials announced that the the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had issued the company a permit to move a million juvenile salmon to Rich Passage, said they lacked the authority to block the move and said they had asked the company to reconsider those plans.
According to Bruce Botka, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman, the issues identified by the inspection “don’t go to fish health issues, which is where our authority extends,” he said, and added that it hasn’t revealed grounds for the agency to rescind its transport permit. Fish and Wildlife expects that the smelt will be moved throughout the fall, he said.
