March 15, 2021 — True North Seafood is showcasing its new frozen wild-caught red crab product at Seafood Expo North America Reconnect – running from 15 to 19 March – in advance of a planned spring launch in the U.S.
The new product is 10.6 ounces of wild-caught deep-sea red crab sourced from Uruguay and frozen at sea. It contains 100 percent wild-caught crab meat with no additives, True North Seafood Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson told SeafoodSource.
October 13, 2020 — Cooke Inc. is featured in The Top 25: Sustainability & Conservation list, published by SeafoodSource on 24 September, 2020. Cooke Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson speaks here on behalf of the company.
SeafoodSource: What kind of trends have informed Cooke’s latest sustainability/conservation efforts?
Richardson: ESG REPORTING: We recognize that a rapidly growing proportion of consumers are driving the importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, as they increasingly look to align themselves with products and companies they trust are transparent in their business practices and serve a greater social purpose.
September 29, 2020 — The following was released by Cooke Seafood:
Cooke Inc. is very pleased to announce they have been named by SeafoodSource.com as one of the Top 25 Seafood Suppliers in North America for Sustainability & Conservation.
The Top 25 list features North American seafood companies demonstrating efforts and advancements as it relates to sustainability and conservation. The chosen companies have proven to be leaders in transforming the industry to become more sustainably minded and validated their commitment to protecting the environment within their business practice.
“In addition to our best practices and environmental certifications, being recognized as one of the top among some of the best in class seafood producers provides assurance to our customers that our True North Seafood products come from a sustainable, responsibly harvested resource,” says Joel Richardson, Vice President of Public Relations, Cooke Inc. “We are committed to maintaining and improving the health of our oceans and coastal communities as one of our guiding principles while producing fresh, quality seafood.”
SeafoodSource.com is a division of Diversified Communications, based in Portland, Maine, USA, a leading international media company providing market access, education and information through global, national and regional face-to-face events, digital products, and publications. The company’s global seafood portfolio of expositions and media includes Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global, Seafood Expo Asia and SeafoodSource.com. They also produced the SeaWeb Seafood Summit, the world’s premier seafood conference on sustainability.
To compile the 2020 list, the SeafoodSource editorial team conducted an extensive nomination and analysis process involving the consultation of a panel of outside experts renowned in the seafood sustainability community. SeafoodSource also accounted for leadership, industry accolades and recognition, pioneering initiatives, partnerships, and industry engagement. The resulting list catalogues best practices for driving the industry onward and upward, providing valuable insight into the inner workings of some of seafood’s most promising and prominent sustainability trailblazers.
“We hold our relationship with our marine environment very seriously,” adds Richardson. “These areas provide livelihoods for the communities in which our people live and work and where we co-exist with the natural world.”
Cooke’s commitment to sustainability, science-based marine practices, and forward-thinking innovation has afforded them many certifications and recognition in recent years. Cooke Aquaculture was recognized as a 2020 winner of the Canada’s Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation for the 15th consecutive year. Winners are amongst the best-in-class of Canadian owned and managed companies demonstrating strategy, capability, and commitment to achieve sustainable growth.
“The Top 25: Seafood Sustainability & Conservation” list is available here: https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/the-top-25-seafood-sustainability-conservation
March 9, 2018 — In an interview with SeafoodSource, Cooke Vice President of Communications Joel Richardson discussed his company’s efforts to convince Washington Governor Jay Inslee of the merits of the industry as the governor considers signing a bill that would phase out non-native finfish aquaculture in his state. Richardson also discussed the formulation of his company’s back-up plan in case it was unsuccessful in convincing the governor to veto the bill.
SeafoodSource: Is Cooke making any efforts to reach out to Gov. Inslee as he considers signing the bill?
Richardson: Yes, we will continue to reach out to Gov. Inslee over the coming days to urge him to veto HB 2957. Over the last few months we have provided Gov. Inslee and all legislators in Washington with evidence-based science from well-respected, credible fishery scientists to inform and educate on sea farming practices. We are also aware that the Washington Fish Growers Association is now urging Governor Jay Inslee to veto the bill this week calling on a ban on Atlantic salmon aquaculture in state waters “Ill-conceived and politically motivated rather than based on the best available science.”
SeafoodSource: In what ways was science not taken into proper account by legislators as they considered the bill?
Richardson: You will have to ask the governor and legislators to answer that question. However, in the aquaculture industry’s view, it’s appalling that that lawmakers have ignored calls to drop the ban from some of the world’s top aquaculture and fisheries scientists, including from the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, who refuted false and misleading claims made by anti-sea farming groups, tribes, and politicians that Atlantic salmon, when and if they escape, could interbreed with Pacific stocks or colonize rivers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that the science from decades of peer-reviewed research does not support the conspiracy theory that Atlantic salmon that escape from net pens will colonize our rivers and/or interbreed with native stocks.
Read the full interview at Seafood Source
February 12, 2018 — International seafood producer, Cooke Aquaculture is vowing a fight as it attempts to hold on to its operations in Washington state.
The New Brunswick-based company suffered a major setback Thursday when the state senate voted 35-12 to end Atlantic salmon aquaculture operations as leases on cage sites expire over the next six years.
The bipartisan bill passed despite an all out effort by the company in support of an amendment proposed by one senator that would have allowed Atlantic salmon aquaculture to continue using only female fish. The amendment was designed to ensure non-native salmon could not breed should they escape into the wild.
“We‘re going to just continue to look forward, we‘re going to work with legislators,” said Joel Richardson, the company vice-president, public relations. “We‘ve been advocating hard on behalf of our employees. We have 180 employees in Washington.
“We believe those employees‘ jobs are worth saving and we‘re going to do everything we can to save them.”
Cooke has found itself on shifting ground since the Aug. 19 collapse of a net-pen farm that allowed tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon to escape into Puget Sound, raising fears they would stress wild native salmon or otherwise contaminate the marine environment.
This photograph of a fouled salmon-cage net was included in a report prepared by a state investigative panel looking into the collapse of the Cooke Aquaculture salmon farm. (State of Washington)
State officials earlier said 160,000 fish escaped, but a report released this month by an investigative review panel concluded the real number is somewhere between 242,000 and 262,000 — numbers that Cooke disputes.
Read the full story at the Kaplan Herald
January 11, 2018 — OLYMPIA, Wash. — A bill that would ban commercial net pens used for fish farms in Washington State is now being considered in Olympia.
It comes after last August’s massive spill in the Puget Sound where tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon were released near the San Juan Islands, and more than 105,000 remain unaccounted for.
“That is a great concern,” said Sen. Kevin Ranker, (D-Orcas Island), who is sponsoring the bill that would ban Atlantic salmon farms in Washington.
On Tuesday, Ranker testified at a hearing of the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee.
“Having these fish, which are considered – under our own laws – a pollutant in our ecosystem makes no sense if we are going to continue to recover our marine ecosystem,” said Ranker.
Ranker is worried about more fish escaping from net pens in the future and the daily operations of the facilities owned by Canadian-based Cooke Aquaculture.
“Frankly, this bill kills rural jobs,” said Troy Nichols of Phillips Burgess Government Relations who testified on behalf of Cooke Aquaculture.
Cooke Aquaculture employs 80 people at its eight facilities in Washington.
“We do an excellent job raising fish there- here in the Puget Sound, said Tom Glaspie who is the farm manager at Cooke’s Hope Island facility. “We give it our all. We care about the environment. Most of us are fishermen; (our) families have fished, and we’re proud to be Washingtonians.”
Read the full story at KOMO News
January 9, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — In December Cooke Aquaculture Pacific was ordered by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to dismantle their fish pens at Ediz Hook. Now the company is fighting back.
Cooke Aquaculture announced on Friday that they have filed a lawsuit in Clallam County Superior Court against the Department of Natural Resources. The company says that the government organization’s attempt to terminate their lease is “not supported by the facts and will unnecessarily result in the loss of scarce rural jobs.”
As previously reported, state Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz, the elected head of DNR, canceled the aquatic lands lease due to a series of violations. Styrofoam discharges, a defective anchoring system and operating 500 feet outside of the leasehold area were all listed as violations.
“Cooke Aquaculture Pacific acquired the Washington salmon farms when it purchased Icicle Seafoods in 2016,” Joel Richardson, Vice President for Public Relations at Cooke Aquaculture, said in a press release. “The Department of Natural Resources, then led by Commissioner Franz’s predecessor, approved the transfer of those farm leases at that time and raised no concerns or objections to the manner in which Cooke’s predecessor company was managing the leased aquatic area. We can only assume that the recent decision to terminate the Port Angeles lease is based upon misinformation or a misunderstanding of the facts and history related to the site.”
At the time of canceling the lease, Franz said that the decision was non-negotiable and that there is no appeal process in place. However, reps for Cooke say that they hope to meet with Franz to discuss DNR’s decision to terminate the lease and answer any questions that the Commissioner might have about their operations.
“While we regret the need to file suit before meeting with the Commissioner, we are required to do so in order to protect the company’s legal rights,” Richardson said. “Nonetheless, Cooke believes that a fulsome dialogue with DNR, which it regards as a long-standing partner in its recently acquired Washington aquaculture program, can likely resolve any legitimate, substantive factual issues between the parties. If those issues cannot be amicably resolved by dialogue with the Commissioner then we are prepared to assert our legal rights by way of the judicial system.”
This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
December 20, 2017 — New Brunswick seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture got even bigger on Tuesday, with its acquisition of a Houston, Texas company and its workforce of 1,000 people.
Cooke Aquaculture acquired Omega Protein Corp. in a $500 million USD deal — approximately $650 million (Canadian) — in one of the single largest foreign investment deals a New Brunswick company has ever done in the United States.
“It’s the single largest acquisition [our] company has ever made,” said Joel Richardson, vice-president of communications for Cooke.
“When a New Brunswick company reaches beyond our borders and acquires a company outside our province, it helps strengthen jobs back here and at home.”
Omega Protein, founded in the early 1900s, is a fishing company that sources omega oils and specialty protein products for both nutritional supplements and animal feeds.
They operate over 30 boats off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, near Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia, and catch a forage fish called menhaden, which is rich in omega fatty acids.
Read the full story at CBC News