Cooke Aquaculture will transfer around 800,000 juvenile Atlantic salmon from a hatchery in Rochester, Washington to other company facilities in Puget Sound.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildfire (WDFW) issued the permit for the move earlier this week after Cooke submitted the application to move the 1-year-old on August 2.
Around 400,000 of the salmon will be moved in October and November to their facility in Skagit Bay, and another 400,000 to a Kitsap County facility in Rich Passage.
Both WDFW and Cooke tested the fish and they met the state’s health requirements, according to WDFW's Fish Health Manager Ken Warheit.
Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill earlier this year to phase out Atlantic salmon net pen farming in Puget Sound as soon as 2022. WDFW said Cooke will continue their operations in the meantime.
The law was signed after around 250,000 salmon were released in the Salish Sea after a Cooke net pen collapsed near Cypress Island in August of 2017.
