PORT ANGELES — Cooke Aquaculture Pacific LLC, rebuffed last week in efforts to establish a new sterile rainbow trout-steelhead fish farm in Port Angeles Harbor with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, wasted no time in challenging a Thurston County Superior Court ruling.
The Canadian fish products company, which conducts fish farming worldwide, filed a notice of appeal Tuesday that will send last Friday’s ruling to the state Court of Appeals, company spokesman Joel Richardson said.
But Kurt Grinnell, CEO of Jamestown Seafood and Aquaculture, said Tuesday the ruling undermines a memorandum of understanding between the tribe and Cooke Aquaculture to establish the fish farm unless Cooke acquires a lease.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t get the lease back, so we won’t be putting any fish in the water at this time,” Grinnell said.
“If they appeal it and they get a lease back, we can talk about it again then.
“We haven’t changed our minds on working with Cooke.”
The tribe will look for a different site for a rainbow trout-steelhead fish farm, “but right now, we’re just kind of taking a look at the whole program,” Grinnell said.
“If there was an existing lease program, we could get started rather quickly.
“Now, we have another year to three years depending on if we have to re-apply for a permit or anything like that.”
Cooke Aquaculture “remains committed to its employees and working with Jamestown tribe to farm native species in Port Angeles,” Richardson said in a prepared statement.
Judge Carol Murphy, in rejecting Cooke’s lawsuit, upheld the state Department of Natural Resources’ termination of the lease.
DNR took the action in December 2017 following the collapse of Cooke’s Cypress Island facility on Aug. 19, 2017, when the agency decided to examine all of Cooke’s net pen facilities.
Cooke Aquaculture Pacific’s work area and office west of the Coast Guard station on Ediz Hook, shown in this file photo from December 2017, serves the company’s salmon farm. (Paul Gottlieb/Peninsula Daily News file)
Violations at the Port Angeles fish farm, which was growing 690,000 Atlantic salmon, included a defective anchoring system, Styrofoam discharges that were occurring at the site and fish-farm operations that were placed outside of the leasehold area.
In 2016, Cooke acquired the fish farm and three others in Puget Sound that were owned by Icicle Seafoods.
State Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz, the elected head of DNR, told Peninsula Daily News in January 2018 that Cooke was required to address the lease boundary violations when it acquired the facility.
Murphy said DNR was acting within its purview when it canceled the lease.
“Although it appears that DNR may have been enforcing what could be described as technical violations after a high-profile event, under the arbitrary and capricious standard, the court finds there is a basis in the record to support the termination decision,” Murphy said.
“DNR’s decision was not arbitrary and capricious, even if there is room for two opinions as to one or more of the reasons cited by DNR.”
Richardson said the company would not comment beyond a prepared statement.
“We’ve worked tirelessly to modernize the existing enclosed net pen farming facilities which we acquired from a previous owner in 2016,” the statement said.
“We have also been working together with the state regulatory agencies as well as progressive partners in the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to rear Northwest native rainbow trout in Port Angeles Harbor.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife on Jan. 21 approved Cooke’s application to farm all-female, sterile rainbow trout-steelhead in Puget Sound under five-year permits where the company holds valid aquatic land leases with DNR near Rich Passage and Skagit Bay.
In fall 2018, the tribe announced a joint venture with Cooke to rear black cod and all-female rainbow trout-steelhead at the dormant Port Angeles site.
“The venture will require reinstatement of the farm lease at Port Angeles, in exchange for significant investment by the venture in new infrastructure and local jobs in the area,” according to the statement issued by the tribe.
Franz lauded the ruling, taking a jab at Cooke for initiating ongoing lawsuits related to the lease terminations at Port Angeles and Cypress Island for alleged breach of contract and due process violations.
“Thank you to Judge Murphy for upholding the right of the Department of Natural Resources to hold accountable a company that failed to operate safely and comply with the terms of its lease,” Franz said in a prepared statement.
“I again call on Cooke Aquaculture to drop its baseless lawsuits.”
The lease that was terminated did not allow the raising of sterile female rainbow-trout steelhead.
“Tenant shall use the property for: net pen aquaculture for Atlantic salmon (the “permitted use”) and for no other purpose,” it said.
“[I] do want to reiterate that any language in the lease is moot as far as we are concerned, since the lease is terminated,” DNR spokesman Carlo Davis said in an email Tuesday.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
