After breach, Atlantic salmon could ‘crowd out’ native population

Fishermen are trying to mop up after a major salmon spill last weekend off Cyprus Island.

RELATED: Data doesn’t support eclipse theory, says UW professor

The Lummi Nation declared a state of emergency on Thursday after 300,000 foreign fish spilled from their pens into the Salish Sea. The breach was blamed on a high tide connected to Monday’s eclipse (two days after the event), but everyone from renowned chef Tom Douglas, to University of Washington professors, to veteran fishermen are skeptical.

“I’m not buying that,” laughed Tom Nelson of 710 ESPN Seattle’s Outdoor Line.

What he is buying is Atlantic salmon fishing around the San Juans.

“It’s no size restriction and no limit and it’s wide open stuff for these Atlantic right now,” Nelson told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don.

Why are these fish on the West Coast anyway? Nelson said it’s simply to supply a cheap fish to a market hungry for salmon. He says the Cooke Aquaculture is in a great location on Cyprus Island to run a fish farm because it’s clean and protected, but those fish pens are also a prime source of disease for native salmon.

RELATED: Eclipse blame for salmon spill?

Nelson said this breach isn’t the first of its kind.

“One summer, a while ago, one of these pens popped open and we did catch a bunch of them in the San Juans and later that winter, while we were winter steelheading, we caught a few of them up the Skagit River.”

“They could potentially crowd out the native population and that’s what we’re trying to avoid,” Nelson said. He explained that native populations –- that face their own challenges -– would be competing with the Atlantic salmon for spawning areas, food in the rivers and Sound, and it’s just not a situation you want to allow.

Nelson said he’s not a fan of aquaculture, but it remains to be seen the results of this latest spill. For now, he said he knows guys loading up their boats near the San Juans, Cyprus Island, Rosario Strait.

“We need as many of these taken out of the population as we possibly can,” Nelson said.

So what do you do with a boatload of Atlantic salmon? Well, you eat them.

Nelson said he’s heard they’re “yummy.” KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill said his friend, George, said he’ll use them as crab bait because he refuses to eat farmed fish.

Nelson agrees, they’re probably not as delicious as a wild fish because they’re fed pellets.

As for the pellets, word on the water is some of the Atlantics are hanging out near the broken pens, waiting for that food to slide down the chutes and hit the water’s surface.

“Guys are throwing spinners, jigs, and buzz bombs, and hooking up on them and doing very well,” Nelson said. “They are safe to eat and they’re raised to be food.”

Nelson is encouraging everyone to get up to the San Juans, which is especially beautiful in August.