Via YouTube:
WFC director, Kurt Beardslee, speaks out against the Cypress Island net pen disaster following the Cypress Island net pen collapse in August 2017. Over 300,000 non-native farmed Atlantic salmon were released from this event and were later observed 40 miles up some Puget sound Rivers and as far north as the Canadian border. Research in 2018 found that nearly 100% of the escaped farmed fish were infected with Piscine Reovirus (PRV), a highly-contagious and potentially lethal salmon virus. WFC’s testing efforts and published research exposed that the net pen industry had imported the virus from Iceland where they purchase their Atlantic salmon eggs and planted it into their Puget Sound net pens where it was likely amplified and spread by the farmed population. Visit oursound-oursalmon.org to learn more about our efforts to fight this reckless industry. Video credit: Liam Gallagher