By Amy Emerson aemerson@chronline.com, Tuesday, June 03, 2003
About $250,000 worth of Atlantic salmon fish eggs may have been destroyed this weekend when vandals broke into Cypress Island Inc., a Rochester fish farm, and shut off water to an incubation building.
"Yes, there is a potential loss of eggs," said fish farm manager Dan Rotter. "We won't know the extent of the damage a few days. It takes a few days for the eggs to show signs that they are dying. Hopefully everything will be OK, but we are not sure at this point." About 5 million eggs costing 5 to 6 cents each were effected. "But in two years, those five million eggs will be 2 million adults worth $20 each, so if we have indeed lost the eggs, it's a major financial loss," he said. "This wasn't like someone shooting at their neighbor's cow with a BB gun. This was a major felonious offense." The vandals entered an incubation building by breaking a padlock. Rotter said the company is now discussing improved security.
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Regarding the possible lost eggs, Rotter said the farm does have time to bring in replacement eggs, though the vandalism will be an economic hardship.
The potentially damaged eggs are a fraction of the Rochester business' total product, he said.
"We have another couple of million eggs that are siblings with this group," he said. "They appear to be unmolested, and so do our millions of yearling and sub-yearling fish." The Rochester arm of Cypress Island supplies salmon smolts that go into net pens in various areas of Puget Sound.
The 64-acre Rochester fish farm was built in 1977 and has had a series of corporate owners, the latest being Cypress Island. Cypress Island owns all of Washington's eight saltwater salmon sites and raises 15 million to 18 million pounds of Atlantic salmon each year.
"There are a lot of people out there, particularly in the commercial fishing industry, that are very anti-aquiculture," said Rotter. "Some don't like the industry for competitive reasons, others for ecological reasons. But the logic they use is utter nonsense." Critics of salmon farming say the practice contributes to ocean pollution, competes unfairly with wild fish, and spreads disease. A concentrated anti-aquaculture campaign called "Farmed and Dangerous," based in British Columbia, is now underway and growing.
One of the movement's arguments is untreated waste from fish pens is polluting the ocean environment.
The Washington Association of Fish Farmers group disagrees, stating regulatory standards prohibit buildup of fish waste in net pens, which are inspected routinely. Association officials also state the pens serve as a barometer of the marine environment and would provide the first indication of environmental problems in the water.
Anti-aquaculture groups also raise issue with the use of antibiotics in farmed salmon, and the competitive threat these salmon have with wild salmon if they escape from their pens.
However, the Washington Fish Farmers Association states "antibiotics are more tightly regulated in fish farming than in any other kind of farming, and steps have already been taken to to prevent escapes." In the event of an escape, the association states Atlantic salmon do not breed with native salmon, and are not a competitive threat as they are not as aggressive as wild salmon.
"It's a big mess," said Rotter. "I truly believe that fish farming is a purely positive industry that makes salmon more affordable to consumers." Rotter is not sure if the vandals were part of the anti-aquaculture movement.
"The interesting thing is that it is almost like they knew exactly what they were doing," he said. "They knew what valve to shut off, and they left alone some expensive equipment." Rotter said this is the first major act of vandalism at the farm. The Rochester business has faced other relatively minor problems such as people trespassing into the farm to fish in the ponds.
"I've seen kids out there with their fishing poles, and now we are even seeing adults out there," he said.
"We just want to get the word out to kids and their parents that we take all offenses very seriously," he said. "What they man see as just sneaking on our property for a fun little fishing trip is actually trespassing and theft. Parents need to know that too."
Amy Emerson covers energy, business and economic issues for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at aemerson@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8231.
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