Salmon stolen from Cooke Aquaculture pens in Washington

As personnel from Cooke Aquaculture were busy responding to the collapse of a net pen near Cypress Island, Washington in September, another one of its salmon farming sites in the state was vandalized and robbed.

An unknown number of Atlantic salmon were taken from two of the 10 net pens at Cooke Aquaculture’s floating farm near Anacortes on 2 September, KUOW reported on 28 November. The site was also vandalized, resulting in damage to the farm and the deaths of a significant number of fish, according to a Department of Fish and Wildlife report on the incident. 

The vandalism came a few days after as many as 300,000 Atlantic salmon escaped from a fish pen owned by Cooke Aquaculture near Cypress Island, Washington. As a result of the escape, there were rumors that Cooke was offering a bounty of USD 30 (EUR 25.35) for each Atlantic salmon returned to the company, according to Sergeant Russ Mullins from the Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. Mullins, who investigated the break-in, hypothesized that the theft was financially motivated. 

“Potentially, suspects could have been stealing these fish to essentially sell them back to the aquaculture company,” Mullins said.

When Mullins visited the site on 3 September, a trail of fish blood dotted the walkway over the farm, marking where the salmon had been dragged from their pens into the thieves’ boat. There were no employees at the fish farm at the time the thieves were there, Mullins said.

“We were surprised that the suspects had been so bold,” Mullins said. “The number of fish taken is unknown, however, based on the amount of blood on the walkway, the number appears to be significant,”

Mullins reported the thieves also turned off the oxygen hoses which help to circulate air in the pens and cut the overhead netting which is designed to protect the salmon from birds. As a result, a number of the salmon died of stress, and were removed from the pens by Cooke divers the next day.

Cooke spokesperson Nell Halse said in a statement sent to KUOW the company did not know exactly how many fish were stolen from the site.

“But it was a small fraction of the fish in the facility,” she said.

As of 20 November, Cooke had not sent information requested by Mullins regarding cost of the damage caused by the vandalism or the estimated number and value of the fish stolen and killed in the break-in. Mullins reported law enforcement had no suspects in the case or active leads, and that the case had been closed pending new developments.