MOP-UP EFFORTS to recover more of the Atlantic salmon that escaped from a net pen containing 305,000 fish near Cypress Island in the San Juans continue this week.
Cooke Aquaculture and its salvage contractor were able to remove three nets from the damaged Cypress Island farm site by late Tuesday, capturing 19,810 Atlantics in the process. The efforts pushed the total of escaped salmon recovered near the site to 141,576, according to the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Lummi Tribe commercial nets have captured another 20,000 fish as of late Tuesday, and sport anglers have reported nearly 1,400 unconfirmed catches to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife website at tinyurl.com/PDN-AtlanticSalmon.
That leaves about 142,000 fish unaccounted for.
“The proccess is shifting into an industrial salvage operation,” DNR’s Incident Public Information Officer Cori Simmons said Wednesday. “Containment efforts will continue on the whole, but on-site containment efforts will begin to focus on removing the damaged structure from the water.”
Simmons said Cooke had not provided an update on catch totals Wednesday.
DNR has demands
A sternly worded letter from Hilary Franz, commissioner of public lands for DNR, ordered Cooke to continue to recover escaped fish around the Salish Sea — not just in the immediate area of the damaged fish pen.
“Multiple reports from tribes and the public indicate fish are traveling far beyond the immediate area, so it is imperative that Cooke also begin efforts to recover fish at the mouths of rivers and streams where other fish are migrating or moving to spawn,” the letter said.
DNR also is asking for Cooke to produce a recovery plan to recover the greatest possible number of escaped Atlantics, continue tracking the fish and prepare a separate plan on how to protect Pacific salmon species from predation and interference in spawning, migration and rearing.
As to what is being done with the recovered fish, Simmons had little to offer. But some may help gardeners.
“Cooke has their own process and disposal operation going on,” Simmons said. “The fish are edible for human consumption.”
Some of the fish also may be headed to the compost pile, instead of the local Costco.
“I do know that at least two local [Anacortes-area] compost facilies were prepared to accept a large amount of these fish,” Simmons said.
The Seattle Times reported the Lummi Tribe has offered to pay buyers to accept the fish, although that process has been complicated because some fish have deformed mouths from a genetic malformation.
Dispersal of fish
Atlantic catches have been reported as far west as Neah Bay, and south as far as the Nisqually River area which feeds into the extreme southern portion of Puget Sound near Olympia.
Sport angler catch reports slowed at Sekiu since the weekend, but the first report along the Hood Canal near Quilcene Bay, occurred Monday. These reports are not required of anglers, so the information can only be considered anecdotal.
Today is the final day to fish for the Atlantics off Sekiu, as Marine Area 5 will close to pink and hatchery coho retention at midnight.
Friday’s Outdoors column will tackle what, if any, harm these Atlantic interlopers could cause to area Pacific salmon stocks.
