Cooke Aquaculture - A Litany of Complaint Against This Fish Farm Company, Updated Nov 1 2020

NS, Cooke Aquaculture has come under fire for many reasons. They exemplify the problems with Norwegian-style fish farms that Kjersti Sandvik writes about in, Under the Surface, her new book, that I have been featuring in recent posts.

Here are some of the bad news Cooke stories, which started with using cypermethrin, a banned chemical, for 2 years before being caught:  http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/nova-scotia-mp-agrees-table-aquaculture-petition.

A quote: "Most of the industrial salmon farms in the Atlantic region are operated by New Brunswick-based multinational Cooke Aquaculture, whose massive fish farms in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Chile have had recurrent outbreaks of superchill, sea lice and deadly infectious salmon anemia, resulting in the forced slaughter of millions of market-ready salmon."

And: "Most recently, Cooke announced the abandonment of highly-touted plans to construct a large salmon processing plant in Shelburne, NS as part of a $25 million loan and grant arrangement with the Nova Scotia government. Premier Stephen McNeil is on record as demanding the return of any of the $18 million granted to Cooke to date, which is connected to their failure to honour the 2012 contract terms."

Here are other stories about Cooke Aquaculture: 

1. More troubles for Cooke Aqua: Product recall, "Do not buy" notice for farmed salmon, loan demands: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/more-troubles-cooke-aqua-product-recall-do-not-buy-notice-farmed-salmon-loan-demands.

2. Super Chill suspected in massive Cooke Aqua fish kills:   : http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/super-chill-suspected-massive-cooke-aqua-fish-kills. 

3. Cooke Aqua sees continued disease in Chile operations:  http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aqua-sees-continued-disease-chile-operations. 

4. Shelburne wants development funds in wake of Cooke Aqua abandoning Shelburne plans: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/shelburne-wants-development-funds-wake-cooke-aqua-abandoning-shelburne-plans. 

5. Cooke Aqua a no-show for Shelburne processing plant: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aqua-no-show-shelburne-processing-plant.

6. McNeil government unclear about where Cooke Aqua $18M was spent: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/mcneil-government-unclear-about-where-cooke-aqua-18m-was-spent. 

You would think that this litany of problems must be very rare, but in fact, it is common for fish farms companies. Go look at my News Bites post. Just skim the bold face text for a minute or two. I think you will be shocked. 370 bad news stories in less than one year: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/07/key-document-fish-farm-news-bites.html. 

Just go look. I receive more than 25 global press fish farm/seafood industry newsletters every week. I am up on fish farm issues, as they happen, every day.

Oh, okay, some more bad news for Cooke Aquaculture. This is common in fish farms:

1. This is the charge about using the banned lice chemical cypermethrin:  http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aquaculture-charged-environment-canada-illegal-pesticide-use. The headline is: Cooke Aquaculture charged by Environment Canada in illegal pesticide use November 2, 2011 - 13:47 — Timothy Gillespie. Subtitled: 33 serious charges filed against Glenn Cooke  & Cooke Aquaculture execs - $33 million fines and 99 years in prison possible - December 13 court date.

2. ISA in Atlantic Canada? See: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/federal-quarantine-cooke-aquaculture-shelburne-nova-scotia. 

3. You want ISA? You got ISA: "Cooke salmon farms in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Chile have had many instances of sea lice epidemics and virulent outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia (ISA), resulting in the enforced slaughter of millions of market-ready salmon." See: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/more-troubles-cooke-aqua-product-recall-do-not-buy-notice-farmed-salmon-loan-demands.

4. You want more on ISA at Cooke, in Chile? You got ISA at Cooke, in Chile: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aqua-sees-continued-disease-chile-operations.

And finally, at the same time Cooke isn't paying the government back in NS (only $1.5 million of the loan) it is expanding its Chilean operations in the middle of an algal bloom that has put 5,000 workers out of jobs and killed 2,000,000 salmon:
http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/07/key-document-fish-farm-news-bites.html. 


As in BoomBust at the same time. Playing one country off against another. A manipulative practice that happens all the time.

And what does Cooke say?


 

  (See: http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-s-aquaculture-company-defends-practices-amid-allegations-from-residents-1.3311918.)

So on their blaming Mother Nature for their farm ripped up in WA, it should have just said, "Our nets broke up. We'll have to build better ones next time." But it didn't, it said it was the eclipse and high tides. Not good enough, Cooke. You need to be on land.

Update for Dec 18, 2017: WA government pulls Cooke's lease in Port Angeles for several reasons, including pollution: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/violations-prompt-washington-state-to-cancel-atlantic-salmon-farm-lease-at-port-angeles/.

Update for Dec 18, 2017: Cooke fined $8000 for water violations: http://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/1398341/cooke-aquaculture-fined-over-repeated-water-quality-violations?utm_source=IntraFish+Aquaculture+Newsletter&utm_campaign=302bd505c2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-302bd505c2-244877629.

Update for Jan 11, 2018: Cooke's Jordan Bay, NS, farm breaks up in a storm. News indicates Cooke and officials 'spinning a yarn' about the damage:  http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aquaculture-government-misleading-public-jordan-bay-salmon-farm-damage-says-activist.

Update for Jan 26, 2018: Blood Water Leak, Cooke, Scotland:  https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/01/26/cooke-scotland-plant-found-to-have-leaked-blood-water/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=359f0d9dfa-Americas_briefing_Jan_26_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-359f0d9dfa-92426209.

Update for Feb 16, 2018: 100% of Cypress Island, WA, Cooke escaped salmon test positive for PRV, the causative virus for HSMI:  http://wildfishconservancy.org/february-15th-prv-press-release/at_download/file.

Update for Oct 20, 2019: the fish abuse video at Cooke, Maine:  https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/09/bad-news-bites-post-13.html.  There are many items in this post that cover this issue. These include: 209, 202, 176, 175, 162 (this is the most in-depth one, and you should read it) 160, 159, 158,157,156,154, 153, 150,149, 148, 147, 146, 145 and so on.

Updated for Oct 21, 2019: Cooke has to pay $156K fine for overstocking its pens, Maine: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/1866347/cooke-aquaculture-pays-usd-156213-for-exceeding-biomass-limits-in-its-salmon-pens.

Updated Nov 1, 2020: Patagonia Drops Processor for Cooke, Trying to Evict Cooke from WA: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/clothing-giant-patagonia-drops-processor-over-ties-to-cooke-leads-calls-to-evict-the-company-from-washington/2-1-899023?utm_source=IntraFish%20Editor%27s%20Picks%20newsletter&utm_campaign=27968e49aa-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_01_09_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4a44318b44-27968e49aa-244948953.

NB - Wild Atlantic Salmon Decline - Miramichi

In New Brunswick, wild salmon declines have occurred in many of its rivers. In the Miramichi, here is some information from the Atlantic Salmon Federation:

Of course, any salmon river is a valuable asset to the region through which it flows. In 2011, a Gardner Pinfold report (Economic Value of Wild Atlantic Salmon) estimated the total annual economic value for wild Atlantic salmon at $255 million, supporting over 3,800 full-time equivalent jobs. One of their four case study rivers was the Miramichi (the other three were the Exploits, Margaree and Grand Cascapedia), where they pegged annual spending related to wild Atlantic salmon at $20 million, supporting 637 full-time equivalent jobs.

See more at:http://asf.ca/voices-of-the-valley-in-winter-14-asj.html#sthash.VTx6x59d.dpuf. 

By October 15, only 198 grilse had passed through the Northwest Cassilis trapnet compared to 230 on the same date last year. For salmon, the numbers were worse, 83 compared to 196 in 2013. Salmon and grilse numbers at the Millerton on the Southwest Miramichi had recovered by October and 743 salmon passed through the Southwest’s indicator trapnet (466 on same date in 2013) with 568 grilse (versus 371, same date ’13).  

The numbers become ever more startling with a quick glance back through earlier years. Average counts at the Northwest Cassilis trapnet between 2001 and 2010 were in the 400 range for salmon and 1100 for grilse. This is in stark contrast to the 83 salmon and 198 grilse counted by the same time period in 2014. While the salmon counts at the Millerton trapnet on the Southwest are somewhat closer to the averages for the same time period, the grilse numbers, while up from 2013, are very depressed. From 2001-2010, average grilse counts at Millerton ranged from 1,935 (2006-2010) to 2,663 (2001-2005).

The trapnet numbers are not complete counts of what is in the river, but rather are partial counts that provide an indication of fish that are entering the Northwest and Southwest systems respectively.   - See more at: http://asf.ca/voices-of-the-valley-in-winter-14-asj.html#sthash.VTx6x59d.dpuf

The average number of salmon returns to the Miramichi River has declined rapidly from 82,000 annually in the 19902 to 53,000 in the first decade of this century, to 23,000 a year since 2011. Preliminary numbers from DFO indicate even further declines in 2014.

A Gardner Pinfold report estimated the toal economic value for wild Atlantic salmon in 2010 at $255 million, with the recreational fishery alone worth nearly $130 million, supporting nearly 4,000 full time equivalent jobs.

See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/24809/government-to-set-up-wild-salmon-decline-committee#sthash.rmhiBeCk.dpuf

In BC, in an average year, there are 100,000,000 salmon that return. This shows that wild Pacific salmon in BC, are in far larger numbers than Atlantic salmon on the east coast, that resemble more, in their habits and numbers, our BC steelhead. BC salmon are far more important to the province of BC than salmon in other jurisdictions. 

Study: On Land Fish Farm Systems Make More Money

Here is another article that shows that on-land closed recirculating fish farms make more money and shield the environment from sewage, disease, lice and the other problems associated with the old-tech in-ocean methods employed, particularly by the Norwegian companies, Marine Harvest, Cermq and Grieg Seafood.

Abstract

Research into the use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) addresses the question of how to achieve profitable production while consistently recycling water and nutrients with minimal fresh water demand and waste production. The RAS facilities require an adequate supply of fingerlings, and a facility for fingerling production in conjunction with each RAS can prevent disease transfer and ensure quality and continuous production. The time, space, and financial investment can be eliminated by hatching (purchased disease free ova) and rearing of fingerlings every 2-3 months. The present study evaluated (water quality assessment, feed utilization, production cycle duration) a simple low cost recirculating hatchery for salmonids as a safe and continuous source of fingerlings for further rearing in RAS. The tested recirculating hatchery enabled low cost efficient production on a small scale (at least 5 production cycles per year, > 63 000 fingerlings per each cycle), low fresh water demand (0.05 l.sec-1) with maintaining good rearing conditions, and environmental and zoohygiene safety. Such simple facilities can support the sustainability of inland aquaculture and strengthen the effort to deliver quality products with minimal operational and environmental costs.

See: http://omicsonline.org/open-access/a-simple-and-effective-recirculating-hatchery-for-salmonids-2155-9546-5-271.php?aid=31145.

See my link for 70 fish farm systems on land, comprising more than 8,000 on land fish farms around the world. There is no need anymore for the excessive environmental damage caused by in-ocean fish farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/key-document-34-mostly-on-land-closed.html. 

Some more text from the study:

The positive results obtained in a simple recirculating system call into question the reported need to use additional technologies for hatcheries such as UV treatment, ozone application, microsieve filtration, oxygenation, and aeration. The RHS was fully functional without such treatments, thus is more efficient with respect to initial investment as well as operating costs. Nevertheless, potential use of additional technologies in enhance the RHS should be discussed. Added aeration and oxygenation may increase the capacity of RHS, but benefits such as increased production and increased biofiltration rate are cancelled out by increased operating costs. Oxygen level and biofiltration efficacy were found to be sufficient in the current study. -

 See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/2001/a-simple-and-effective-recirculating-hatchery-for-salmonids#sthash.sdp4Ved9.dpuf.