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Hope Island fish pens on way out
SOON TO BE A DISTANT MEMORY – The Cooke Aquaculture salmon net pen facility on Skagit Bay off Hope Island and Lone Tree Point will not be part of the local seascape much longer. The state did not renew Cooke's lease for the facility and has banned all net pen finfish farming in Washington waters.
A local controversy that has lingered for more than three decades will soon be an historical footnote.
The net pen salmon farm off Hope Island and Lone Tree Point is going away.
Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and state Department of Natural Resources staff informed Cooke Aquaculture last week that the state will not renew an expired lease for the Skagit Bay facility, nor one for a similar net pen operation near Bainbridge Island.
Cooke Aquaculture must finish operations and begin removing its facilities and repairing any environmental damage by Dec. 14.
Friday Franz...
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