Cooke Aquaculture Pacific steelhead trout farm at Hope Island, Washington, 2022.
Photo: Cooke.
As a result of the 2022 Executive Order announcing the intent to ban commercial net-pen fish farming on state-owned aquatic lands, on January 7 of this year, the Washington State Board of Natural Resources ratified the rule that former Public Lands Commissioner, Hilary Franz, and her Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff drafted. Now, the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA) has announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Washington DNR "for its unlawful ban on commercial net pens in state waters."
The lawsuit alleges that in its predetermined rulemaking process, resulting in the banning of commercial finfish net-pen aquaculture in Washington state waters, "DNR failed to satisfy Administrative Procedure Act (APA) procedures; stepped beyond its statutory authority; promulgated arbitrary and capricious rules; and violated State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requirements."
In the release announcing the lawsuit, the President of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, Jim Parsons, noted that NWAA members had hoped the Board of Natural Resources would have had more time to consider the nearly 500 pages of scientific information that NWAA, agencies and scientists had contributed to the dossier.
Back in January, in an email statement to WeAreAquaculture, NWAA Executive Director Jeanne McKnight was very clear about her views on the matter. "I doubt a single member of the Board read the hundreds of pages of testimony that we presented; and I doubt a single one of them has ever visited a commercial fish farm," she then said.
Now, the Association reported, some members of the Natural Resources Board agreed that the Jan. 7 vote left them little time to review the scientific documents presented in the case.
It also noted that, in affirming the decision, the DNR relied, and admittedly did so, on its own science rather than on the science submitted in the record by other respected agencies such as NOAA and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"This ban was rushed through," NWAA President continued. "NWAA hopes that a more thorough Judicial Review of the rule will result in a decision to invalidate the rule banning commercial net pens so we can return to what we have been doing in this state for more than 40 years: Growing nutritious, high-quality fish that consumers can afford," he added.
In his statements, Jim Parsons also claimed that, led by its former Land Commissioner, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, "Conducted a predetermined and inadequate rulemaking process that ignored the best-available science and ignored the intent of the State Legislature when it set forth a new law allowing for the production of native species in commercial net pens."
Jeanne McKnight had spoken along the same lines last month. "The January 7 vote ignored the testimony presented to DNR and its Board by numerous aquaculture experts, civic leaders, scientists, and Tribal leaders. Without a doubt, the eco-activists who made the most noise had the least credible science or no science at all," she said.
"Science lost. In the end, the Board came to the meeting with their minds made up to give Hilary Franz her parting 'gift' of the ban she so rushed through without due process," NWAA Executive Director told WeAreAquaculture.
This is not the first time the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance has taken on the Washington Department of Natural Resources in court. In May 2023, it won in court the right to join the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's lawsuit against the DNR and then Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, on behalf of its members. The lawsuit was filed to challenge Washington's fish farm closure order.
Then, the Thurston County Superior Court - the same one before which this new lawsuit has been filed - upheld the Alliance, rejecting arguments made by the DNR saying the ban on commercial net-pen fish farms had no impact on the interests of NWAA members or, at best, had an "attenuated interest," and recognized NWAA members' interest in the Tribe's cause against the closure of Washington fish farms.
