Three years ago, thousands of salmon in Puget Sound fish farms succumbed to the IHN virus. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t affect humans.) This outbreak, along with other issues with fish farms, has led the Wild Fish Conservancy to threaten legal action against both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) for neglecting the risks of fish farms, KING5 writes. Although the EPA and the NOAA don’t believe that fish farms hurt fish, the Wild Fish Conservancy disagreed, claiming that the salmon in the 2012 outbreak were kept in the net pens for two months, allowing the disease to quickly spread from fish to fish. The agency also took issue with how the NOAA set up a steelhead hatchery in a lake as opposed to a river, hampering the fishes’ ability to migrate.
Wild Fish Conservancy may sue government over fish farms
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By Jacob Nierenberg
Jacob Nierenberg is an editorial intern at Crosscut. He has lived in Washington for nearly all of his life, and still proudly identifies with the Pacific Northwest despite his relocation to Stanford U
Jacob Nierenberg is an editorial intern at Crosscut. He has lived in Washington for nearly all of his life, and still proudly identifies with the Pacific Northwest despite his relocation to Stanford U