On August 19, 2017, a net pen at a fish farm near Cypress Island, Washington state, broke, accidentally releasing into the Pacific Ocean hundreds of thousands of non-native Atlantic salmon. The salmon farm was run by Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC.[1] According to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the inadequate cleaning of biofouling (roughly 110 short tons (100 metric tons)) on the net pens containing the farmed salmon was likely the primary cause for the pen break.[2]