Thousands of salmon escaped a Washington state fish farm near the border on Saturday and could be on their way to B.C. waters.

Cooke Aquaculture has confirmed that several thousand of 10-pound Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the waters between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands after some kind of structural failure of the net pens at its Cypress Island farm.

Exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week鈥檚 solar eclipse are to blame, the company said in a statement.

Ron Warren, assistant director of the fish program for Washington鈥檚 Department of Fish and Wildlife, said they believe about 4,000 to 5,000 of the 305,000 fish in the Cooke Aquaculture net pen escaped.

The fish are safe to eat and were last medicated with antibiotics in 2016, he added.

鈥淲hat we have for records is a treatment from July 2016 and that the fish have all been healthy since that time,鈥� Warren said. 鈥淔ortunately, from a health standard perspective, the fish are of size and are fine, unfortunately they鈥檙e now swimming free in state waters and maybe in B.C. waters as well.鈥�

In the fallout, the Department of Fish and Wildlife issued an open call to recreational fishers to catch as many of the escaped Atlantic salmon as possible.

However, it鈥檚 not welcome news to anglers.

The accident has tribal fisherman from Lummi Island, a traditional First Nations area on the U.S. side of the border, crying foul.

鈥淭his is a travesty,鈥� said Keith Carpenter, president of Lummi Island Wild, a local fishing company.

Carpenter said tribal fisherman Lucas Kinley caught 15 of the Atlantics about eight kilometres from Lummi.

鈥淪ome are deformed, they are so diseased their mouths are deformed, it鈥檚 not good for us. This is a huge deal, it鈥檚 no small event. These are exotics, they don鈥檛 belong here.鈥�

John Volpe, associate professor with UVic鈥檚 School Of Environmental Studies, was 鈥渦tterly unsurprised鈥� to hear about the escape.

Volpe, who completed his PhD studying Atlantic salmon which are breeding wild in B.C. waters, said it鈥檚 yet another reason why B.C. and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans need to study the very topic of Atlantic salmon escaping West Coast fish farms.

What Volpe finds concerning is that a catastrophic event such as this makes the news in Washington state, where there are but a handful of farms compared to B.C.鈥檚 thriving arm of the industry.

Despite the grand number of fish that escaped in this one incident, it鈥檚 more concerning the number of fish that escape through chronic leakage.

Volpe added that it鈥檚 highly likely that at least some of the recently escaped fish will enter B.C.鈥檚 portion of the Salish Sea, if not many of them.

鈥淚 would say it鈥檚 highly likely some of the fish have made it over here though we have limited study on their escaped behaviour, but there鈥檚 no information whatsoever,鈥� Volpe said.

He would like to see an in-depth study of Atlantic salmon done along the West Coast.

鈥淔or years we鈥檝e tried to secure research funding to ask this question.鈥�

In Canada, escapes from licensed fish farms are to be reported within 24 hours and are posted here

Warren said Washington has had a history of fish farm escapes going back to the 鈥�90s but are less frequent. Cooke Aquaculture operates in Canada as well as Washington and Maine.

reporter@saanichnews.com
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