Endorsed by Gov. Jay Inslee, a bill to phase out net-pen farming of Atlantic salmon in Washington waters made it through the state senate earlier this month. It’s now headed to the House, where the state legislature will cast a final vote to potentially nix the nets via a phase-out period.
According to Our Sound, Our Salmon, “Since the first day of the session Cooke Aquaculture has fought hard to undermine the risks associated with open-water net pens and pushed our legislators to put industry profits ahead of the public’s best interest. Yet commercial fishermen, tribal groups, environmental organizations, and the public at large working side by side has made it clear just how powerful public pressure can be when we work together.”
The senate has scheduled a final floor vote on HB2957 for this week. If passed, this legislation would prevent the authorization of any new leases as well as curb the renewal of existing leases for Atlantic salmon net pen aquaculture in public waters such as Puget Sound.
Send your comments to the state legislature, here.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.