SEATTLE TIMES | OPINION: Protect WA’s waters and tribal sovereignty: Ban commercial finfish net-pen aquaculture
January 5, 2025 Special to the Seattle Times
Photo: “Industrial net-pen aquaculture facilities confine non-native species in open-water cages, creating breeding grounds for disease, parasites and pollution that threaten the delicate balance of our marine environment, write the authors. Pictured is a net-pen aquaculture operation off of Lone Tree Point. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times, 2021)
Frances Charles Chairwoman of the Lower Elwa Klallam Tribe Leonard Forsman Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, a signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott Steve Edwards Swinomish Tribal community chairman
“We urge Washington’s leaders to take this critical step and formally declare commercial finfish net-pen aquaculture is not fit for our waters. The time to act is now — for the fish, the water and the generations to come. Please join us in urging the DNR Board to ban commercial aquaculture net pen leases.
It is about upholding tribal sovereignty, respecting treaty rights and preserving the traditions that have sustained our peoples since time immemorial.”
Together, these Northwest Treaty Tribal leaders are urging the Board of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to take immediate action to formally prohibit commercial finfish net pen aquaculture.
The authors also encourage the public to support this initiative by contacting the DNR Board ahead of the upcoming vote on January 7th to adopt a rule that would safeguard Puget Sound for future generations. If you haven’t taken action yet, there’s still time!
For the past decade, Tribal and First Nations have been at the forefront of efforts to end commercial net pen aquaculture to protect the waters of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea, which have sustained their peoples, cultures, and traditions for millennia.
Following the 2017 Cypress Island net pen collapse, the Lummi Nation sacrificed their own fishing season to lead the cleanup effort of escaped farmed fish. Photo by Brandon Sawaya/ Soulcraft Allstars original from the article Who cleaned up the Atlantic salmon spill? Northwest tribes | Cascade PBS
A coalition of American and B.C. activists are calling for net-pen fish farms to be banned in B.C. six months after such a ban passed in Washington.
First Nations protesters face down a Marine Harvest ship known as the Orca Chief–although members of the ‘Namgis prefer to call it “The Orca Thief.” Photo by Alexandar Morton
Litigation and advocacy by indigenous communities has been fundamental to raising awareness about viral and other pathogen risks.
On the same day WA passed a landmark law banning all Atlantic salmon net pens, OSOS participated in a peaceful protest led by First Nations outside a BC legislator’s office. Photo by Wild Salmon Defenders Alliance
