SCIENCE LEADS THE WAY: MOVING WASHINGTON'S NET PEN GUIDANCE FORWARD IN A CULTURE OF CONCERN

Washington State and NCCOS were working together to replace the state's 30-year-old guidance for commercial net pens of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) when a pen collapsed and released 160,000 non-native Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. The project is now on hold awaiting legislative direction amid widespread public and tribal concern over risks to Pacific salmon.

Outdated guidance has been a barrier to long-range coastal planning for this use with some local governments banning commercial net pen aquaculture. The project is designed to provide growers and regulators with today's science and best practices for managing eight existing facilities and reviewing new proposals. As the state with the largest net pen production, the new guidance was on track to being a national model.

The project's geographic scope (Figure 1) includes coastal estuaries and Puget Sound - the second largest estuary in the U.S. and home to threatened Pacific salmon struggling to thrive downstream of 4.3 million people. Since the 1990s, state agencies, tribal and federal partners, residents and politicians have launched bold efforts to recover Pacific salmon. A network of motivated change agents are concerned that new guidance means industry expansion and eventual Atlantic salmon colonization - considered by some to be the "nail in the coffin" for Pacific salmon. The August 2017 escape has fueled concerns. A temporary state moratorium on issuing permits is now in place until the incident is investigated.

This presentation shares early results of the net pen guidance project and lessons learned within Washington's social, cultural, and political context.