Washington State’s ban on marine fish farming is a blatant case of politicians ignoring science to get votes from activists — a troubling trend mirrored in British Columbia
By Fabian Dawson
Science, sovereignty, and food security took a back seat to the fearmongering by anti-fish farm activists this week, as Washington State voted in favour of upholding a controversial rule that bans commercial net pens in its waters.
The politically driven decision defies a landmark 9-0 ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court, which unequivocally debunked the fabricated claims of anti-fish farm activists about the disease from marine aquaculture sites and sea lice harming wild stocks.
It also contradicts the growing bipartisan momentum in the U.S. Congress to expand open-ocean farming and support the development of sustainable aquaculture in federal waters.
The Washington State decision is yet another blatant example of politicians pandering to the anti-fish farming lobby to secure votes—an alarming trend mirrored in British Columbia.
Hilary Franz, the outgoing Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, spearheaded efforts to dismantle the state’s marine aquaculture sector, leveraging the issue to boost her short-lived gubernatorial campaign before pivoting to a failed congressional run. Central to her crusade was the 2017 collapse of a Cooke Aquaculture salmon net pen at the company’s Cypress Island farm. Franz repeatedly used this isolated incident as justification for her anti-aquaculture stance.
The event became a rallying point for anti-fish farming rhetoric in the Pacific Northwest, stoking unfounded fears that escaped Atlantic salmon would interbreed with wild Pacific stocks and compromise their genetic integrity.
However, no such outcomes occurred. Despite this, activists amplified the narrative, and Franz adopted it as a political tool.
She and her allies refused to acknowledge that millions of non-native Atlantic salmon have been intentionally released into West Coast rivers and lakes, beginning more than a century ago, and dozens of attempts were made to establish viable Atlantic salmon populations in neighbouring British Columbia.
All the documented experiments concluded that no spawning populations had survived because farmed Atlantic salmon are poor colonisers when competing with wild Pacific salmon.
Concerns about interbreeding farmed salmon with wild Pacific stocks in the event of escapes are unfounded, say fisheries experts. Over the past 40+ years, hatchery scientists made many attempts to interbreed these different species; all were unsuccessful.
On January 7, the six-person Washington State Board of Natural Resources voted 4-0, with two members abstaining, to uphold Franz’s proposed rule banning commercial net pens in Washington State.
Jeanne McKnight, the Executive Director of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA), said Franz pushed for the ban to be voted on before her term at the helm of Washington’s Department of Natural Resources ends next week.
“Franz insisted on rushing the rule-making process so that the Board could vote on the proposed ban in its January 7 meeting, largely to appease her supporters—which we view as short-sighted and politically motivated,” said McKnight.
“In doing so, Franz deprived the Board of the ability to thoughtfully deliberate and review the enormous body of peer-reviewed science in the record,” adding that “had they done so, they would not have voted for this unsupportable ban.”
NWAA President Jim Parsons, the CEO of Jamestown Seafood, a business operated by the S’Klallam Tribe, said outgoing Washington Governor Jay Inslee also pushed for the Board to vote for the ban under his watch.
“At a time when tariffs threaten to raise the prices of imported seafood and the cost of groceries for average Americans remains very high, the Washington State Board of Natural Resources has voted to take away from our citizens an important and affordable source of protein that can be sustainably grown right here in our own waters,” said Parsons.
“In addition to being a blatant disregard for the hundreds of pages of thoughtful testimony from aquaculture experts, civic leaders, respected fisheries scientists, veterinarians, Tribal leaders, and consumers, the January 7 decision sets a dangerous precedent that should serve as a warning to anyone in the business of growing food in this state on leased land—be it producers of shellfish, apples, grapes, or beef—that the Department of Natural Resources could shutter any business or sector that the Commissioner of Public Lands doesn’t like,” he said.
Industry coalition Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS) said: “This decision in Washington State is out of step with the growing bipartisan momentum for open-ocean aquaculture across the country and in the nation’s capital, as Americans and environmentalists recognize that aquaculture can be conducted without harming the environment, is beneficial for our communities, and is a sustainable source of protein farmed here at home.”
According to news reports in Washington, the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, abstained from the vote, noting more work needed to be done to “preserve tribal commercial rights as sovereign nations to do this.”
Graham Young, executive director of Washington State’s Western Regional Aquaculture Center, said during his public comments on the issue that the rule ignores numerous in-depth reviews that “have come to the opposite conclusion” when it comes to net pen harm and risk.
Intrafish reported that some board members acknowledged the need for future protein production from aquaculture and urged the agency to do more technical investigation into the net pen farming sector.
“A ban is not a permanent ban,” board member Dan Brown, a University of Washington director and professor in environmental and forest sciences, said. If evidence can be presented that finfish aquaculture could be done sustainably, “this ban can be reconsidered,” he added.
The new rule in Washington will take effect later this month, even as the Canadian Federal Government is currently advancing a transition plan for the aquaculture sector that centers on a politically driven ban on marine net pen salmon farming in B.C. by 2029.
This decision, similar to the one in Washington, disregards scientific evidence and is deliberately designed by the Trudeau Liberals to secure votes from the anti-fish farming lobby.
According to the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA), Trudeau’s politically driven ban will saddle Canadian taxpayers with a $9 billion compensation bill for salmon farmers, suppliers, and First Nations.
The BCSFA and the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS) have urged the government to adopt their no-cost-to-taxpayers alternative to the current transition plan—one that achieves the same goals without devastating impacts on the sector, First Nations’ rights, and B.C.’s coastal communities.
(File Image shows Hilary Franz being sworn in as Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands – courtesy Department of Natural Resources)