LUMMI NATION, Wash. – The Lummi Nation has been compensated for damages related to the collapse of a salmon net pen five years ago.
On Wednesday, June 22nd, a state jury awarded the tribe $595,000 over the 2017 collapse, where Atlantic salmon were being raised.
The event elicited fears of damage to wild salmon runs and prompted the state Legislature to ban the farming of the nonnative fish.
About 250,000 Atlantic salmon escaped into the Salish Sea when the net pen owned by Cooke Aquaculture collapsed.
Cooke paid a bounty of $30 for each salmon recovered by the tribe’s fishers, totaling $1.3 million.
The Lummi Nation argued that while the fishers had been compensated, the company had not reimbursed the tribal government for responding to the spill.