Cooke Aquaculture USA is sued over salmon-farming practices in Maine

A conservation group is suing Cooke Aquaculture USA for alleged ocean pollution from its salmon-farming sites along the Maine coast.

Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Maine against the company, part of Saint John-based Cooke Inc.'s wordwide operations.

The 44-page lawsuit focuses on 13 active cage sites for salmon farming in the ocean just off the Maine coast. The sites consist of net pens anchored to the sea floor and to floatation devices on the ocean's surface. They hover in the water and hold the salmon as they grow. 

The lawsuit claims that Cooke's net pens are violating the U.S. Clean Water Act by allowing salmon feces, excess food and carcasses to fall to the sea floor. 

"Those salmon are stacked into cages," said Heather Govern, vice-president of the clean air and water program at the foundation.

"And we're really concerned about the pollution that is coming from those cages, falls to the sea floor, creates a toxic sediment, which then really kills the food source for lobster and bottom-feeding fish."

Cooke's net-pen sites are near Swans Island, which is near the famed Acadia National Park, Beals Island, Machias Bay, and Cobscook Bay on the U.S.-Canada border. 

"Within each lease area, Cooke operates between six and 30 cages," the lawsuit said. 

Steven Hedlund, a Cooke Aquaculture USA spokesperson, did not respond to several interview requests but denied all allegations in a statement posted on Cooke's website in November when the suit was first threatened by the conservation group.

The claims are "false, misleading and lack substantive evidence," Hedlund said.

"Cooke's Maine Atlantic salmon farms are routinely inspected by state regulators and subject to regular monitoring reports. These laws are designed to protect Maine waters as well as Maine's heritage fisheries."

Cooke was recently sued by two conservationists for its involvement in a Virginia fishery, but earlier this month, a judge dismissed the case in Cooke's favour. 

Govern said the Conservation Law Foundation has been investigating Cooke for two years. The work has involved visiting the sites, interviewing locals and fishermen who have been impacted, and using freedom of information requests to get monitoring data that Cooke submits to the state as part of its permit requirements.

"The company has to report diseases, escaped fish, instances where there are holes in the nets," Govern said, adding that the foundation is concerned about the caged salmon are spreading diseases and breeding with wild Atlantic salmon, which were listed as endangered in Maine in 2000.