PORT ANGELES — A seafood company that wants to put a new fish farm in the Strait of Juan de Fuca made its case a preliminary meeting with local, state and federal agencies Tuesday in Port Angeles.
“We don’t have any announcement,” said John Bielka, general manager of Oregon-based Pacific Aquaculture, a division of Pacific Seafood, after the private pre-application meeting for a joint aquatic resources permit.
“We were just there to listen. We gave a presentation on what we kind of envision. This is all very preliminary.”
Among those attending the meeting were state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Clallam County Planning Manager Steve Gray, Bielka said.
It was held at the Clallam County Courthouse.
Pacific Seafood is studying the feasibility of growing steelhead trout and Atlantic Salmon in 24 circular net pens a mile or two offshore between the Lyre and Twin rivers 20 miles northwest of Port Angeles.
In an earlier interview, Bielka said the Strait would be an ideal spot because of the cool, nutrient-rich water and constant tidal action that would flush away the waste to be assimilated into the food web.
In its project description, Pacific Seafood said the fish farm could grow 5,000 tons of fish per year.
Bielka has said that it could produce up to 80 jobs if a processing facility were to be built in Clallam County.
No future meetings with regulators have been set, Bielka said.
He said that no application for the fish farm has been submitted to the county.
Meanwhile, researchers last month announced the discovery of an influenza-like virus in two juvenile sockeye salmon collected from the central coast of British Columbia.
The virus, which does not affect humans, has caused losses at fish farms in Chile and could have devastating impacts on wild salmon and other Pacific Northwest species, researchers said.
John Kerwin, who supervises the fish health unit at the state Fish and Wildlife, said no signs of the virus were detected in the 56,000 hatchery and wild fish that the state tested last year.
American Gold Seafoods, the only company now raising Atlantic salmon in Washington state — with one of its operations in Port Angeles — has not detected the virus.
Pacific Seafood said all fish in its pens would be vaccinated and tested for diseases.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com
