FISH WATCH — WILD FISH NEWS, ISSUES AND INITIATIVES

Washington State Explores Locations for Land-Based Aquaculture Facilities

On April 11, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz signed a partnership agreement with Nova Scotia-based Sustainable Blue, a zero discharge, land-based salmon farming company, to identify opportunities for siting sustainable finfish aquaculture in Washington State.

This agreement represents an important step toward restoring finfish aquaculture in a sustainable, healthy way that does not pit farmed fish against the native salmon. The letter of intent launches an exploration of land-based sites managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that would be suitable for closed-containment aquaculture on state-owned lands. DNR manages 2.6 million acres of state-owned aquatic lands on behalf of the people of Washington, along with 2.1 million acres of upland public lands.

The 2017 collapse of finfish aquaculture net pens off Cypress Island made clear the dangers that open water commercial finfish aquaculture facilities pose to native salmon and their habitat. Citing this event and other operational and maintenance issues that have been documented from the four open water net pen aquaculture facilities in Washington’s waters such commercial facilities are no longer leased on state-owned aquatic lands.

Sustainable Blue, founded in 2007 in Nova Scotia, Canada, is the longest-running commercial zero-discharge Recirculating Aquaculture System (zRASTM) in North America. The Sustainable Blue zRAS recirculates 100% of its salt water, creates zero discharge to local waterways and communities, eliminates any potential for escapes, and offers a value-added proven model for aquaculture. Waste solids are instead separated and used to generate electricity (with additional use cases currently being researched and developed). The wastewater is cleaned and returned back to the facility, all resulting in zero discharge back into the environment. Because Sustainable Blue’s system is fully self-contained, the salmon are free of sea lice and other fish diseases, meaning they require no antibiotics

Research for potential facility locations began in the spring. Visit https://www.dnr.wa.gov/news/commissioner-franz-partners-sustainable-blue-identifyopportunities-land-aquaculture-state and https://www.sustainableblue.com for more information.