Canada monitoring U.S. salmon spill – it’s very serious, minister says – Times Colonist

August 25, 2017

The federal government says it is monitoring thousands of Atlantic salmon that escaped into the Salish Sea last weekend after a fish farm pen in Washington state collapsed.

The fish farm is east of Victoria in the San Juan Islands and owned by the Canadian company Cooke Aquaculture. The net pen structure, which was holding more than 300,000 fish, imploded Saturday or Sunday. It’s not known how many fish got out.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc said staff in B.C. are looking at the potential impacts and damage to local ecosystems and are in communication with their U.S. counterparts.

“Although this incident happened at an American facility subject to U.S. laws and regulations, our government takes this incident very seriously given its proximity to Canadian waters,” LeBlanc said in a statement.

Read More: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/canada-monitoring-u-s-salmon-spill-it-s-very-serious-minister-says-1.22154482