Surrey sport angler Adam de Bosch Kemper’s accidental catch of Atlantic salmon in a smelt fishing net last Saturday night off White Rock offers further evidence of how far thousands of escaped salmon from a Washington State fish farm have spread in Canadian waters.
De Bosch Kemper had just set his net and was waiting to see if it would fill with the small, sardine-like fish when he noticed two bigger fish thrashing in the net under the light of his headlamp. At first, he mistook them for spring salmon.
However, when a third, bigger fish became entangled, de Bosch Kemper had more time to notice the distinctive spotted markings of an Atlantic salmon before the fish shook itself free.
The spot he encountered the fish is about 50 kilometres north of the Cooke Aquaculture farm in the San Juan Islands that suffered damage in strong currents starting Aug. 12. It spilled up to 180,000 adult Atlantic salmon, which have since been tracked as far as 125 kilometres away.
Cooke has recovered and accounted for about 120,000 of the 300,000 fish that were at the fish farm.
Derrick Penner – Vancouver Sun –Â August 30, 2017.
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