‘Namgis First Nation failed to win an injunction that would have blocked the restocking of a Marine Harvest open-net fish farm in its traditional territories off Swanson Island. Restocking will continue over the next week.”

The ‘Namgis had applied for the court injunction against Marine Harvest earlier in the month hoping to block the company from transferring juvenile Atlantic salmon (smolts) to its Swanson Island farm. They also applied for an injunction against the fisheries minister as part of a broader application for a judicial review of federal policy that does not require fish to be tested for piscine reovirus or heart and muscular disease before being transferred to a farm. Marine Harvest has operated for 28 years in compliance with Fisheries and Oceans Canada requirements for transferring fish, court documents showed, and the ruling also said Marine Harvest has made "good faith" attempts at consultation with the First Nation. He also said Marine Harvest had no other place to move the smolts, given that the injunction application was filed so close to the late March or early April restocking date. “Farm fish are killing our salmon, our way of life and there can be no reconciliation with First Nations as long as there are farm salmon in my territory,” said hereditary leader Ernest Alfred via press release. “The Canadian and Provincial governments are allowing a million Atlantic salmon into this small bay in ‘Namgis territory, when Washington State just prohibited the industry,” said Morton via press release, who has published several scientific papers on the spread of piscine reovirus in BC, “I have to do what I can to try to stop this virus from spreading.”

On March 22, 2018, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill into law to phase out Atlantic salmon farms.
Following a collapse of a farm and a large release of Atlantic salmon into the Pacific, the state of Washington bans the farming of Atlantic salmon in their territorial waters.