Saving Seafood

COOKE AQUACULTURE PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR NOVA SCOTIA WILDFIRE

May 31, 2023 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

Cooke Aquaculture Inc. has dispatched a convoy of equipment and supplies from New Brunswick to support the first responders working to contain the devastating wildfires in the Shelburne and Tantallon areas of Nova Scotia.

In consultation with the Nova Scotia EMO Provincial Coordination Centre and Municipal officials, Cooke has sent a fully equipped, 1-ton fire pumper truck and two tractor trailers of fire fighting equipment, which arrived in Nova Scotia this morning. The supplies include water pumps and hoses, fire fighter field kits, communications radios, tents, and a side-by-side ATV.

Yesterday, Shoreland Transport Inc., Cooke’s trucking subsidiary delivered a refrigerated tractor trailer to the Birchtown Community Centre, a staging area for EMO, to store food and beverages for fire fighters. Cooke’s barbeque trailer is currently enroute along with donated salmon burgers to be prepared by Cooke employees in partnership with a local service club.

Cooke Aquaculture is proud to employ many volunteer firefighters, many of whom are part of the effort to keep their communities safe with the fires taking place this week in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. While our employees and other first responders are bravely combatting this fire, Cooke remains in contact with municipal officials, EMO, and evacuation centres, and are ready to provide additional support as needed.

Read the full article at Cooke Aquaculture

Cooke employees and equipment helping extinguish Saint Andrews wildfire

May 30, 2023 —The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture:
Cooke Aquaculture has sent trucks, a side-by-side ATV, a support trailer with three high pressure water pumps, sixty communications radio batteries and other relief supplies to help local fire fighters extinguish an out-of-control wildfire near the Town of Saint Andrews.
 
We thank the brave local fire fighters and first responders, including nearly a dozen Cooke Aquaculture employees who are volunteer fire fighters battling the intense blaze around Saint Andrews to keep community members safe. Charlotte County is home to many of our employees, and we will be supporting any who have been displaced. 
 
Those that have been evacuated are asked not to go back to their homes until further notification. The W.C. O’Neill Arena Complex in Saint Andrews is still open for emergency services and the Red Cross is on-site for support. Emergency Update Centre news here:https://www.townofsaintandrews.ca/update-emergency-centre/

Cooke enters agreement with Abanca to negotiate purchase of 80 percent stake in Nueva Pescanova

April 13, 2023 — Betanzos, Spain-based bank Abanca entered an agreement to negotiate the sale of an 80 percent stake in Nueva Pescanova to Canadian seafood conglomerate Cooke Inc.

The exclusivity agreement, signed on Thursday, 13 April, places the valuation of the Vigo, Spain-based vertically integrated seafood firm at EUR 800 million (USD 884 million). The agreement requires Pescanova to continue to be headquartered in Vigo.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

In unprecedented move, federal council takes no action on Cook Inlet salmon plan

April 11, 2023 — A federal council made the unprecedented decision to take no action on choosing a new fishing management plan for Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishing Friday, after it said it was left with no good options on a tight, court-ordered timeline.

That means management of the fishery will likely fall to the federal government — which council members and Cook Inlet fishermen warn could severely limit the fishery.

At its April meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council was supposed to choose between several potential management plans to delegate management of the Upper Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishery. The council manages fishing in Alaska’s federal waters, which start three miles offshore.

But council members, audibly frustrated, said none of the options before them were viable.

“The court-mandated timeline has forced this council into a box that we find ourselves in,” said Andy Mezirow, a charter boat captain out of Seward who sits on the council. “For these reasons, I can’t support any of the alternatives before us today, and I hope the public notes that fisheries management on a tight court-mandated timeline does not allow us to do our best work.”

The council’s been trying to figure out what to do with the fishery for years, following a lawsuit from the United Cook Inlet Drift Association over management of the fishery.

In 2020, in response, the council voted to close a large swath of Upper Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing. That area — called the exclusive economic zone, or EEZ — is where drift fishermen say they catch a majority of their fish. Kenai Peninsula fishermen and advocates showed up, en masse, to the 2020 meeting to object to the closure.

UCIDA sued, once again, to overturn the decision. The court sided with them last June and the state reopened the fishery just as the 2022 season was starting up.

That was a temporary fix. At its meeting this month, the council was supposed to choose a new fishery management plan, or FMP. It’s under court order to have a plan in place by 2024.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Court reins in ‘politically motivated’ rush to dismantle fish farms

January 9, 2023 — A court has ordered Hilary Franz, the Commissioner of Public Lands in Washington State to rein in her “unscientific and politically motivated” push to shut down Cooke Aquaculture’s fish farming operations in Puget Sound.

The Superior Court of the State of Washington granted the motion, which was filed by Cooke, yesterday. The original deadline of Jan. 14 has now been moved to April 2023.

Cooke, which raises native Steelhead trout in partnership with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, sought the preliminary injunction to secure a reasonable period of time to safely harvest the fish, and remove the equipment remaining at the Puget Sound sites.

Franz, in a pre-Christmas move abruptly issued notices to Cooke to stop its operations, and followed it up with an executive order to ban the State’s 40-year tradition of fish farming in Puget Sound.

She also refused to allow Cooke more time to harvest the fish in the pens – representing 2,656,000 meals – and the requested period to shut down the sites safely.

Read the full article at SeaWestNews

Washington state court grants Cooke extension to harvest farmed salmon

January 6, 2023 — Cooke Aquaculture on Friday scored a victory in its battle with Washington state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz over how quickly it needs to remove salmon from netpens in state waters.

On Friday, Washington Superior Court Judge Indu Thomas said Cooke would have until April to harvest its remaining fish pens in Washington state instead of by Jan. 14 as was initially required by Franz and the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The judge on Friday granted the extension to “facilitate safe removal of the fish” from the netpens, but reiterated the DNR’s request to remove all equipment by April still stands.

She said the extension for harvesting fish would be granted for “no later than April 14,” but said Cooke should remove the fish “at the earliest opportunity,” if weather allows.

Cooke Aquaculture Pacific Permit Coordinator Kevin Bright testified to the Washington court last month that “dramatic and forced changes to the scheduled production and harvesting plans can create extraordinary farm staffing and safety concerns.”

Read the full story with a subscription at IntraFish

Cooke appeals lease denial of Washington State rainbow trout farms

December 14, 2022 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

On November 14, 2022, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (“DNR”) abruptly issued notices to Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC (“Cooke”) that it would not be renewing two rainbow trout farming leases located at Rich Passage and Hope Island in Puget Sound. Furthermore, DNR arbitrarily and unreasonably demanded that Cooke harvest all fish and remove all farm equipment from the sites within 30 days. The lease application denials were the culmination of Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz’s five-year quest to “bury” Cooke and destroy aquaculture in Washington.

Just days later, Commissioner Franz again ignored science and legislative mandate by unilaterally implementing a politically self-serving executive action to ban commercial fish farming in the State of Washington.

Right after announcing the lease application denials and holding a press conference on the ban, Commissioner Franz pivoted to using the announcement to fundraise for her re-election campaign, a stinging insult to those employed by the aquaculture industry in the state who are now faced with losing jobs right before the holidays.

On November 23, 2022, DNR declined Cooke’s request for a reasonable amount of time to harvest fish and remove the equipment from the water. DNR arbitrarily agreed to give Cooke 31 additional days to harvest the fish and directed Cooke to remove all the equipment by April 14, 2023. Cooke has repeatedly explained to DNR why these deadlines pose a safety risk to its employees, risks to the environment, and the risk of financial loss in the form of destroyed crops. DNR has repeatedly and arbitrarily ignored these explanations.

DNR’s refusal to renew Cooke’s leases was punitive, arbitrary, and contrary to extensive scientific research completed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (“WDFW”), DNR’s sister agency that has primary responsibility to ensure the health of wild fish stocks in Washington. WDFW’s research concluded that farming of rainbow trout in Washington waters, as proposed by Cooke, would not have probable significant adverse impacts to the environment, and those conclusions were unanimously affirmed by the Washington Supreme Court in January of this year.

The decision is unjustified given the State Legislature’s confirmation that native species of fish can be farmed in Washington’s waters and the extensive work done by Cooke and multiple state agencies, including WDFW, to strengthen the regulatory framework governing marine farms. Cooke has enthusiastically worked collaboratively and transparently with regulatory agencies to identify areas of improvement and implement regulatory and monitoring processes to ensure that its operations meet and exceed the highest standards.

The Rich Passage and Hope Island farms have been present at the same locations for more than 40 years, with multiple lease renewals being granted by DNR to previous operators. Scientific studies and monitoring data have consistently shown that the Rich Passage and Hope Island fish farms do not have an adverse impact on the environment. The fish grown by Cooke are the exact strain of sterile rainbow trout used by WDFW to stock lakes and rivers throughout Washington.

The trout farms are an important part of domestic food production and are needed to curb a massive seafood deficit where 90% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported. Wild fish catches cannot meet the projected demand for seafood, and aquaculture is essential to preserving wild fisheries.

Given the deplorable actions of Commissioner Franz and DNR, Cooke has filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the State of Washington to appeal the lease renewal denial, to protect its employees, the environment, and its legal rights. Cooke is also seeking a preliminary injunction to secure a reasonable period of time to safely harvest the fish and remove the equipment remaining at the Rich Passage and Hope Island sites. Upon hearing the evidence and reviewing the files and records Cooke has asked the court to compel DNR and Commissioner Franz to produce, Cooke is confident that the court will conclude that DNR had no basis in law or science to deny the Rich Passage and Hope Island fish farm lease renewal applications.

‘Ignoring science’: Suit targets Washington fish farming ban, seeks stay for 300,000 trout

December 14, 2022 — Cooke Aquaculture on Wednesday morning filed a complaint in Washington State Superior Court to appeal the state’s decision to deny renewal of the Canada-based company’s fish farming permits for its Hope Island and Rich Passage farms.

In the 42-page complaint, Cooke also seeks a preliminary injunction to secure a reasonable period of time to safely harvest the 300,000 fish in the farms and remove the equipment at the sites.

The complaint is in response to the Nov. 14 announcement by the state that the last two remaining Puget Sound fish farming leases, held by Cooke, would not be renewed. Four days later, state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz announced by executive order an end to net pen fish farming in state waters managed by the Department of Natural Resources.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Puget Sound fish farm shutdown at odds with Biden plan

November 17, 2022 — The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has prevailed in a years’ long effort to end fin fish farming in state-owned waters of Puget Sound, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz has announced.

However, the decision appears to be at odds with the Biden administration’s five-year plan, unveiled in October, to increase aquaculture in the United States.

Franz announced Nov. 14 that the last two fin-fish net pen leases, held by Cooke Aquaculture, will not be renewed by the state. The company is using its existing operations to raise steelhead trout.

Franz stated that the effort to terminate the leases began with lease violations by the lessee and noted the Cypress Island net pen collapse in 2017 which resulted in some 200,000 salmon escaping into the bay, according to a WDNR statement.

Read he full article at the Center Square

WASHINGTON: NFI, aquaculture groups demand independent review of Washington’s decision to cancel Cooke leases

November 16, 2022 — The National Fisheries Institute, the National Aquaculture Association, and the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance are calling for an independent review of a decision by the U.S. state of Washington to cancel two net-pen leases for steelhead farms operated by Cooke Aquaculture.

Washington’s Department of Natural Resources made the lease-cancelation announcement on 14 November, 2022, citing a determination the leases “continued operations posed risks of environmental harm to state-owned aquatic lands resulting from lack of adherence to lease provisions and increased costs to DNR associated with contract compliance, monitoring, and enforcement.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource