More Than 300,000 Farmed Atlantic Salmon Accidentally Released into Puget Sound

[Sea Save Foundation]

An aquaculture company, blaming the solar eclipse, on a net pen break, released 300,000 farmed Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound, Washington State. Washington is the only west coast state that allows farming of the non-native Atlantic salmon in net pens. The release could hurt the native fish populations, which include Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. When farmed Atlantic salmon escape into the wild, they compete with native populations for food and introduce disease and parasites.

Read more here (story #1).

 

[Kharon]

Whoah - that truely sux. More "unintential" invasives - and a huge mass of them. We ain't ever going to learn. Also - the solar eclipse??? Are they sure it wasn't sasquatch or aliens? Of course, it couldn't be negligance or human error.

 

[The Chairman]

Oh my... that really does suck! Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

 

[Peter Guy]

A little more information from the local newspaper (not a particularly conservative one either).

The best guestimate is that about 50% of the fish escaped from the nets -- about 150,000.

This is not the first escape of Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound (in fact the State tried to introduce Atlantic Salmon some time ago). The experience from past exposures (deliberate and accidental) was that the Atlantic salmon didn't survive nor did they cross-breed with the native salmon.

As to "it was the fault of the eclipse" -- that is over-stating what was described. As a result of the new moon (eclipse time) we had our highest tides and strongest currents. For whatever reason, bad planning, bad maintenance, just plain bad luck or some combination thereof, the anchors on the pens failed. It wasn't the "eclipse" but the circumstances which led to the eclipse (i.e., moon-sun in direct line thus maximum gravitational pull here).

If one is interested, here are links to the newspaper articles which might be a little less biased:

State puts hold on new pens for farmed Atlantic salmon after mass escape in Puget Sound

Please go fishing, Washington state says after farmed Atlantic salmon escape broken net

 

[Kharon]

A little more information from the local newspaper (not a particularly conservative one either).

The best guestimate is that about 50% of the fish escaped from the nets -- about 150,000.

This is not the first escape of Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound (in fact the State tried to introduce Atlantic Salmon some time ago). The experience from past exposures (deliberate and accidental) was that the Atlantic salmon didn't survive nor did they cross-breed with the native salmon.

As to "it was the fault of the eclipse" -- that is over-stating what was described. As a result of the new moon (eclipse time) we had our highest tides and strongest currents. For whatever reason, bad planning, bad maintenance, just plain bad luck or some combination thereof, the anchors on the pens failed. It wasn't the "eclipse" but the circumstances which led to the eclipse (i.e., moon-sun in direct line thus maximum gravitational pull here).

Glad that they will most likely die before doing damage. Also, thanks for the "eclipse" information. That makes sense. Still - human error.

 

[MaxBottomtime]