Í kjölfar ýmissa brota á rekstrarleyfi, mengun, óþægindi íbúa í nágrenninu og önnur ítrekuð vandræði hefur einu af stærstu laxeldisfyrirtækjum Kanada verið skipað að loka og fjarlægja sjókvíar sínar við bæinn Port Angeles í Bandaríkjunum.
Skv. frét The Seattle Times:
„Cooke Aquaculture Pacific has lost the lease for its Atlantic salmon net-pen farm in Port Angeles and must shut down and remove it, said Hilary Franz, state commissioner of public lands, who terminated Cooke’s lease.
The farm, operated by a series of owners since 1984, currently holds nearly 700,000 Atlantic salmon. Franz said the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would work with other state agencies to enforce an orderly shutdown and complete removal of the farm.
Franz said her decision is final. “There is no room for negotiation.”
At issue are risks to the public and the environment posed by Cooke’s farm on the east side of the Ediz Hook, Franz said. The farm, which comprises one large pen with 14 cages and a smaller pen with six cages, is outside the boundaries of its lease with the department and causing a navigation hazard, Franz said.
The farm also is polluting the water with fragments of Styrofoam crumbling off its floats. Finally, anchor lines for the farm are missing or damaged, posing a risk of collapse and fish escape — as happened last summer at another Cooke farm, at Cypress Island, Franz said.
The dangers and unauthorized placement of the farm were discovered during inspections the week of Dec. 4 that Franz initiated, part of ongoing inspections she has ordered for all of Cooke’s Washington fish farms following the Cypress Island escape.“
