A fish farm fiasco, deconstructed – Pique Newsmagazine

Will public outrage finally fuel change?

Audacious. Arrogant. Call it what you will, the idea that we humans can farm fish in the ocean and expect anything less than trouble is so audacious and arrogant it would be laughable — laughable, as in a big sarcastic “ha-ha,” if only it weren’t so atrocious and wrong-minded.

For people who’ve been advocating for land-based fish farms for years, yet another nightmare has come true. A net pen that collapsed Aug. 20 at a San Juan Island fish farm released thousands of Atlantic salmon into the wild. The pen held about 305,000 fish. But more than a week later, officials for the parent company, Cooke Aquaculture, still say they don’t know how many fish escaped. Apparently, “many fish” are still in the nets.

In trying to pin down the number of escapees I found two conflicting statements: 1. Cooke is waiting until conditions are right to send divers down to examine the net pens. 2. Cooke is waiting until harvesting is completed to do the inventory on the numbers released. (This from a post on the company’s website.)