By The Associated Press
SEATTLE — A conservation group says it intends to sue the federal government for allowing farm-raised salmon in the Puget Sound area.
Wild Fish Conservancy sent a letter Tuesday to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, giving them a required 60-day notice of intent to sue.
The organization says the agencies failed to fully assess the danger of floating pens of non-native Atlantic salmon to protected wild salmon runs, including chinook and Hood Canal chum salmon as well as steelhead.
The Wild Fish Conservancy said that violates the Endangered Species Act.
The organization said there are eight net-pens operating in Puget Sound that annually raise 10 million pounds of Atlantic salmon, but those fish can and have spread disease to wild salmon.
A spokesman for the EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation, and the fisheries service did not immediately return a call seeking
All the Atlantic salmon fish farms in the Puget Sound area are owned by American Gold Seafoods.
They include pens in Port Angeles Harbor off Ediz Hook as well as off Bainbridge, Cypress and Hope islands.
