Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped into the Pacific Ocean after a ‘structural failure’ in a net pen near Cypress Island, which is in Washington State.
New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture owns the operation and, in a statement, blames exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse as the cause of the damage. About 305,000 salmon were in the net pen at the time and the company initially estimated about between 4000 and 5000 fish escaped.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is encouraging anglers to fish for the escaped Atlantic salmon, which is listed on the department’s website as an Unlisted Invasive Species, which is described as “Species that are not on the Prohibited or Regulated specie lists but are of great concern and deemed highly threatening.”
Ron Warren, head of the department’s fish program, said in a statement their first concern is to protect native fish species though does note there isn’t any evidence that the Atlantic salmon pose a threat to native fish populations.
(Map Data ©2017 Google)
(Salmon photo credit: William Hartley, USFWS)
