January 4, 2019 — The state Department of Ecology is taking comment now on permits for four Cooke Aquaculture Atlantic salmon farms — three in Kitsap County and one in Skagit Bay.
Farming Atlantic salmon in net pens is officially banned from Puget Sound starting in 2022.
Ecology is using the investigation from the 2017 Cypress Island net pen collapse to mandate more protective permit requirements.
Cooke Aquaculture, the only company farming Atlantic salmon in Washington state, lost its lease in Port Angeles in 2017.
Ecology is accepting comments on the permit through Feb. 25 and will make a final determination after reviewing them.