Olympia, Washington – The Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA) announced it has filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Natural Resources for its unlawful ban on commercial net pens in state waters.
NWAA President, Jim Parsons, said DNR, led by its former Lands Commissioner, “Conducted a predetermined and inadequate rulemaking process that ignored the best-available science and ignored the intent of the State Legislature when it set forth a new law allowing for the production of native species in commercial net pens.”
The lawsuit alleges that in its predetermined rulemaking process, resulting in the banning of commercial finfish net pen aquaculture in state waters, “DNR failed to satisfy Administrative Procedure Act (APA) procedures; stepped beyond its statutory authority; promulgated arbitrary and capricious rules; and violated State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requirements.”
Parsons said NWAA members had hoped the Board of Natural Resources—some of whom agreed that the January 7 vote left them little time to review the scientific documents submitted in the matter—would have had more time to consider the nearly 500 pages of scientific information NWAA, agencies, and scientists had submitted into the Record. He noted that DNR relied, and admitted to doing so, on its own science rather than the science that other respected agencies such as NOAA and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had submitted into the record.
“This ban was rushed through,” Parsons said, adding that “NWAA hopes that a more thorough Judicial Review of the rule will result in a decision to invalidate the rule banning commercial net pens so we can return to what we have been doing in this state for more than 40 years: Growing nutritious, high-quality fish that consumers can afford.”
NWAA’s members include leaders in the production of finfish and shellfish in freshwater and marine environments as well as support businesses in Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska. Representing NWAA in its litigation is the Pacific Northwest firm, Northwest Resource Law PLLC.
