Farming Steelhead in PS now.

Your thoughts?

Been going on for a while East of the mountains.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/fil...719-ea-2011.pdf

You'd think WDFW would have learned a lesson from the Atlantic salmon fiasco, but once Cooke partnered up with a tribal enterprise I'm sure any opposition they might have had quickly disappeared.
SF

Winner, winner chicken dinner.
SMH

My take......I've bought NO salmon or steelhead, in my life....yea I ate trout caught in Washington State, Canada, and South Dakota but I've NEVER actually purchased any "red meat fish".

I live in Grays Harbor...thus my access to salmon and steelhead is better than most areas of the United States...."I fish therefore I am", while I don't fish as much as I've done in the past....I still fish LOTS !!!! I don't like to eat frozen fish, but I have, most of my frozen fish gets smoked.

I shop Costco and Safeway, mostly. It would be interesting to see how many pounds of "farm raised steelhead amd salmon" is sold.

I would say that the vast majority of the public really don't give it a second thought as to wheather the fish they are buying is in fact farm raised.

Probably most people couldn't tell if the fish was "wild or farm raised", if blind folded and the fish was cooked exactly the same way.

Now I can see the commercial industry, and whomever backs the commercial industry, throwing up road blocks but again "the fish buying public", wants to buy when and if they want to buy....

Couple things. The fish are as sterile as they can be made. Plus the fact that hatchery origin O. mykis are reproductively incompetent.

The issues surrounding the culture will be the kickers but WDFW and the Tribes will need to be somewhat careful as they run net pens, too.

As to who will eat what, one of the advantages of any cultured fish is that it is available, fresh, year around.

Reproductive success isn’t the primary concern I don’t think. My guess is we should primarily be worried about disease. These fish can and do get sick, and having proximity to wild fish to spread their germs is no bueno..

Haven’t we gone down this road before? Piscine reovirus, sea lice epidemics etc. all come to mind. Sad.

Saw this posted on the WDFW website:

https://medium.com/@wdfw/facts-and-myths-about-newly-issued-permit-to-farm-steelhead-in-puget-sound-853244f7f289

To the idea that these fish are somehow going to spread disease to wild fish, and they might, the State and Tribes culture significantly more fish, statewide.

There was a recent note I saw that Ringold lost about half its steelhead crop to disease and then released the rest early.

https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/cooke-aquaculture-appeals-ruling-against-fish-farm/