Escaped Atlantic salmon caught in drift-net on Skagit River

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 21, 2018

Associated Press

SEDRO WOOLLEY — Washington state officials say an Atlantic salmon that escaped from a collapsed net pen at Cypress Island has been captured in a drift net 40 milesup the Skagit River.

Fish veterinarian Jed Varney, of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told The Seattle Times in a story Friday that the 3-foot fish was thin but looked good with no significant bacteria or parasites.

Varney said he found several vertebrae of an unidentified small fish in the Atlantic salmon’s stomach.

A member of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe caught the fish Tuesday while drift-net fishing for hatchery chinook.

The Atlantic salmon and about 300,000 others escaped from Cooke Aquaculture’s net-pen farm in August when one of its pens collapsed.