Native Salmon Matter More: It's what the Elwah River is being restored for.

Native salmon matter more.

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Encourage Governor Inslee to sign into law EHB2957, phasing out nonnative Atlantic salmon net pen operations. Contrary to old NOAA science, these nonnatives are a risk, traveling throughout the Salish Sea basin, not staying near the pens waiting to be fed as NOAA scientists claimed they would be. 
Email: https://www.governor.wa.gov/…/con…/send-gov-inslee-e-message
Phone: 360-902-4111

The new cycle of life begins.

In pictures released by the Coastal Watershed Institute are seen why >$300 million was spent to remove dams and restore habitat on the Elwah River: For native species begin a new life cycle.

This is what the northwest's heritage

and culture is based on. They are why

West Coast values are important.

Restoration was not for nonnative Atlantic salmon, mistakenly described by NOAA "scientists" as being like "cows on the Serengeti" which would not travel beyond their pen areas. Those "cows" have traveled over 200 miles to the Skagit; Puyallup; Elwah; and Skykomish Rivers, and into Canada. That is reality, not a paper on someone's desk.

NOAA researcher Michael Rust told the Seattle Times this release of around 5,000 [now at ~250,000] salmon should not harm the environment: “These things are kind of couch potatoes. They are domesticated. Imagine a dairy cow getting lost out in the Serengeti." Forbes, August 24, 2017

One of the many one ton bags of pellets

dumped into Puget Sound to feed Atlantic salmon.

Some will be eaten, a portion "pooped" by salmon,

some will simply drift off.

These net pen operations are not shellfish. They do not filter the water. They instead use the public waters to throw tons of pellets into the water, some simply drifting in the ecosystem, some coming out of the salmon to also drift in the ecosystem. They are additive, with one pen estimated at one hearing to be the equivalent of the septic discharge of a city of 60,000 people.

Welcome to 2018. It's time for a change.

And it's not because Cooke Aquaculture is Canadian.

This is 2018, not 1999, when the last significant escape of nonnative salmon occurred. Native salmon and Southern Resident Orcas are at greater risk now than they ever have been, far more than in 1999, almost 2 decades ago. It is why it is now time to phase out net pen operations, additive to the risks at many levels. It has nothing to do with whether the current operator is Canadian or not. It is because things change over 20 years. That is reality, not an alternative fact and why Washington residents want nonnative Atlantic salmon removed.

Get involved and encourage Governor Inslee to sign into law EHB2957. It is on his desk. Cooke Aquaculture is spending close to $100,000 - likely much more - to convince him otherwise.
Email: https://www.governor.wa.gov/…/con…/send-gov-inslee-e-message
Phone: 360-902-4111