Letter to commissioner Franz regarding net pen site lease

Cover letter submitted to Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz of WA’s Department of Natural Resources along with Wild Fish Conservancy’s four applications to lease aquatic land sites in Puget Sound managed by the state and used by the commercial net pen industry for three decades. These applications are competing with applications from Cooke Aquaculture Pacific for the same aquatic lands for the continuation of commercial marine net pen aquaculture when the existing leases expire in 2022.

The letter describes WFC’s intent in leasing these lands is for the Taking Back Our Sound Restoration Project, which seeks to holding these lands in public trust for the sole purposes of:

1. Restoring these industrialized aquatic lands to their natural state for the restoration and conservation of threatened and endangered species, water quality, and the overall health and function of Puget Sound’s ecosystem
   AND
2. Restoring full access of these aquatic lands to the public for their benefit, use and enjoyment

The letter also describes how WFC’s proposal is consistent with WA state laws that describe the state’s philosophy and guidelines for managing state owned aquatic lands and why the uses stated are more consistent with those objectives than the continuation of commercial finfish marine aquaculture.

Learn more at www.oursound-oursalmon.org/taking-back-our-sound