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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2017
Debate: Salmon farms remain
controversial in Pacific Northwest
Continued from Page 1A
gram, said there’s no evi-
dence the escaped fish pose
a threat to native fish popula-
tions, either through disease
or crossbreeding with Pacific
salmon.
Still, he said the state
wants to protect native fish
species and has urged anglers
to catch as many escaped
salmon, some up to 10
pounds, as possible.
Wild salmon
reigns supreme
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
The band Radical Revolution played on the main stage at the end of Hood to Coast Saturday.
Hood to Coast: ‘It’s about
doing something for ourselves’
Continued from Page 1A
The team likes to keep it
light, rotating team names
with other walking puns like
“Walks on Walks Off” and
“Sasqu-walks.”
But the walking itself is
anything but casual.
“We’re a part of a race
walking network. There’s a
real technique to it,” team
member David Howitz said.
The team competes in other
events where there are strict
guidelines for race walking
form. And thinking of race
walking as a slow sport is a
misconception, they said. Cur-
rently, the record for fastest
walking time for a mile is 5
minutes and 31 seconds.
The technique comes down
to how the arm swings, how
the hip drops and making sure
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A runner makes the final
turn off the boardwalk in
Seaside toward the finish
line of the Hood to Coast
Relay on Saturday.
to roll the foot forward. But
that challenge of balancing
physical and the mental com-
ponents is what makes race
walking more fun than run-
ning to some, team member
Michelle Chuaprasert said.
“If you think you’re just
going to walk faster, it’s not
going to work. It’s not intui-
tive,” she said.
But for some race walk-
ing teams, like the “Chris-
topher Walkins” from Sher-
wood, competing in Portland
to Coast is a way to connect
as friends out of the routine of
their everyday lives.
“Why do we race walk?
Because we don’t run,” team
member Jenni Kelley laughed.
“Because someone on your
friend’s team cancels, and you
do it for the first time and then
you get hooked.”
For this team, race walking
isn’t about form and just doing
something physical, team
member Michelle Coxcy said.
“It’s about doing something
for ourselves,” Coxcy said.
“It’s not easy, but it’s some-
thing we can do together that’s
fun.”
Wyden: ‘Republicans do not want to have
anything to do with paying for this wall’
Continued from Page 1A
Taxes and spending
Wyden, the ranking mem-
ber on the Senate Finance
Committee, blasted the Trump
administration’s one-page tax
reform proposal, which would
lower top-tier rates on individ-
uals and businesses and reorder
much of the federal tax code.
In the guise of helping
small businesses, he said, there
is a disturbing proposal to
reclassify ordinary income as
capital gains, taxed at a lower
rate. “On my watch, I’m going
to fight that every single step
of the way,” he said, promising
to advocate for bipartisan tax
reform that benefits the middle
class and helps produce more
jobs.
Asked about Trump’s recent
threat at an Arizona rally to
shut down the government this
fall unless significant money
for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico
border is included in the fed-
eral budget, Wyden said Trump
will find bipartisan resistance.
“Republicans do not want to
have anything to do with pay-
ing for this wall,” Wyden said,
adding the U.S. instead needs
infrastructure investment.
Health care
Amid widespread oppo-
sition, Republicans narrowly
failed to repeal and replace the
federal Affordable Care Act.
Wyden said the efforts made a
mockery of Trump’s campaign
promises to expand insurance
coverage and lower costs, with
federal analyses concluding
the two iterations of Trump-
care would have increased pre-
miums and cut coverage for
millions of people. The sena-
tor said Congress needs to pass
Raju: He and
Continued from Page 1A
bipartisan legislation to stabi-
lize the private insurance mar-
ket, clamp down on prescrip-
tion drug prices and give states
more flexibility to set up pub-
lic and single-payer health care
options.
Wyden highlighted bipar-
tisan efforts with U.S. Sen.
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to pass
legislation on chronic care,
which would use telemedi-
cine, coordinated care and val-
ue-based payment to decrease
costs and expand access. The
bill, forecasted by the Con-
gressional Budget Office to
reduce direct spending on
Medicare and Medicaid by
more than $215 million over
the next four fiscal years, was
recently approved by the Sen-
ate Finance Committee.
Environment
his plans. That is what I intend
to do in September.”
Dean Rutz/The Seattle Times
Washington has the larg-
est marine finfish aquacul-
ture industry in the U.S., with
farms producing about 17
million pounds of Atlantic
salmon each year, according
to the state.
While salmon farms have
operated for more than 30
years in Washington, they
still remain controversial in
the Pacific Northwest where
wild salmon reigns supreme.
Alaska has banned commer-
cial finfish aquaculture. Sev-
eral counties in the state, such
as Whatcom County, have
moved to limit commercial
finfish aquaculture.
Cooke blamed high tides
and currents coinciding with
the solar eclipse for the fail-
ure at its farm off Cypress
Island in Skagit County.
“The ongoing tides were
a huge challenge,” said Nell
Halse, a Cooke spokes-
woman. She said the com-
pany called in experts last
month to stabilize the salmon
farm during high tides,
though no fish escaped then.
“We put our best expertise to
stabilizing this farm and we
had no reason to believe that
it would have collapsed on
Sunday.”
Critics weren’t buying that
reasoning, noting that tides
weren’t higher than usual
over the weekend.
“They’re trying to imply
that this was some unnatural
natural event. This was abso-
lute negligence on their part,”
Riley Starks of Lummi Island Wild shows three of the
farm raised Atlantic salmon that were caught alongside
four healthy Kings in Point Williams, Wash.
said Kurt Beardslee, execu-
tive director of the Wild Con-
servancy. Fish farms “are
polluting every single day a
massive amount of phospho-
rous and nitrogen into the
waters that we’re trying to
clean up.”
Halse said Cooke had
applied for permits to
upgrade the net pens at the
Cypress Island to its level
of standards. It also plans to
make investments in opera-
tions across the state.
The Lummi Nation has
been so concerned about the
fish escapes that tribal anglers
have been trying to catch the
Atlantic salmon before they
enter local rivers. The tribe
declared a state of emergency
Thursday, saying the fish spill
needs to be addressed imme-
diately. Tribal officials are
worried that farmed salmon
will eat native fish or disturb
its spawning grounds.
Michael Rust, science
adviser with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s aquaculture
office, said farmed salmon
tend to be domesticated,
raised on feed and not used
to catching fish or escaping
predators. Farmed salmon are
more likely to be prey than
predator, he said.
He and others note that
science and technology
advances have improved fish
farming practices in the U.S.
over the decades and aqua-
culture operations must meet
strict regulations.
Jill Rolland, who directs
the U.S. Geological Sur-
vey’s Western Fisheries
Research Center in Seattle,
said she’s not concerned that
the escaped fish have any
pathogens that will spread to
wild fish. “We have a very
strong regulatory environ-
ment to ensure that these fish
are under veterinary care,”
she said.
A conservation group,
meanwhile, plans to sue. The
Wild Fish Conservancy says
it gave Cooke Aquaculture
notice Friday that it will sue
for violations of the federal
Clean Water Act.
The conservation group
says the release poses a threat
to struggling wild fish pop-
ulations and the ecosys-
tem. It alleges the fish spill
violates federal pollution
laws because it sent farmed
salmon, dead carcasses and
other debris into the water.
Cooke has blamed high
tides for the disaster. A com-
pany spokeswoman did not
immediately respond to a
request for comment about
the legal action.
State and tribal fisheries
managers are urging anglers
to catch as many as possible
to protect native fish species.
Russia
Speaking of federal inves-
tigations into interference
by Russia in U.S. elections,
Wyden, who serves on the Sen-
ate Select Committee on Intel-
ligence, said both Congress
and special counsel Robert
Mueller are both trying to fol-
low the money.
“What I said on the (intel-
ligence) committee is that our
job is to tell all of you, the
American people, what hap-
pened, how our democracy
was hacked and do it in a way
that doesn’t compromise clas-
sified information,” the sena-
tor said.
Charity Golf Tournament for Wildlife Center of the North Coast
Charity Golf Tournament for Wildlife Center of the North Coast
Wyden talked about his leg-
islation, the Presidential Tax
Transparency Act, to require
all presidential candidates to
release their tax returns, while
Golfers and
and Volunteers
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made
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To all
all of
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our Sponsors,
Sponsors, Golfers
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first first
against Russia overwhelm-
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all
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our
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made
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Astoria recently joined
a number of cities formally
opposing a proposed oil ter-
minal in Vancouver, Washing-
ton. Wyden was asked what he
will do to protect the Columbia
River from becoming a fossil
fuel highway to Asia.
Wyden said the federal
government can’t play Rus-
sian roulette with people’s
safety and needs to support
initiatives that create incen-
tives to improve tracks, replace
aging trains and support first
responders. So far, he said,
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Scott
Pruitt hasn’t said much regard-
ing oil trains.
“Under normal circum-
stances, I’d say, ‘Well, maybe
that isn’t all bad,’” Wyden said.
“But … when I hear about all
the stuff his staff is working on
behind the scenes, I think we
got to get him on the record on
Faced with a woman who
said Trump was causing people
mental health issues, Wyden
Sponsors
reminded the audience that
for an awesome day!
despite all the dramatic rhet-
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“I do think the last few
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days have seen a lot of push-
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conservative Republicans. “I
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don’t know how he expects
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Adrift Hotel
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different. She had an opportu-
nity to transfer out to the North
Coast, and Raju started look-
ing at local opportunities. He
met Larry Popkin, a managing
member in Campbell & Pop-
kin and a licensed real estate
broker, while looking for a
home, which turned into a dis-
cussion about his law firm.
Raju said he feels fortunate
that he and his wife can con-
and live in a place where they
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with their interests,” he said. “I
don’t want to let them down.”
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tournament a success, raising over $3,000 for our wildlife patients!
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his belt, he estimates about 150
of his cases have gone to trial,
more than some other attor-
neys with twice the number of
years practicing.
After several years of prac-
ticing criminal and family law
in the Portland metro area,
Raju said he and his wife,
Christy, an occupational ther-
apist with Providence Health
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