Cooke Aquaculture: First US Salmon Exposé

Update: Martha Stewart appears to have cut ties with Cooke Aquaculture shortly after our investigation and pressure campaign. In 2025, we returned to Cooke Aquaculture and found that fish continue to suffer. You can view the updated investigation, here.

In 2019, Animal Outlook released the first-ever undercover exposé of salmon aquaculture in the U.S.

Our investigator worked inside Cooke Aquaculture in Bingham, Maine, exposing senseless violence against these sentient animals at an industrial Atlantic salmon hatchery supplying Martha Stewart’s new True North Seafood line.

The groundbreaking video takes you beneath the surface of fish factory farming and reveals putrid conditions, rampant disease and widespread cruelty to fish intensively crowded in barren tanks.

The plight of fish often goes unseen and unheard, but our new exposé brings to light the dire lack of protection for millions of animals raised for food.

In light of climate change and environmental threats, many people are rightly worried about our oceans. Our investigation reveals the cost of the massive demand for fish: Extreme factory farming. Working inside Cooke Aquaculture, our investigator witnessed shocking conditions with consequences for both farmed fish and consumers.

Update: In April 2022, the judge in our lawsuit wrote that the cruelty we described was “grotesque and reprehensible,” though she dismissed the case for procedural reasons.

Key Date: Court rejects Cooke’s attempts to dismiss lawsuit on June 24, 2021

Cooke filed four separate motions trying to escape the lawsuit Animal Outlook filed against it in 2020, but on June 24, 2021, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ruled against Cooke on all four motions. Our lawsuit, which aims to stop Cooke from continuing to mislead and deceive consumers into purchasing its products, is now proceeding toward trial.

Key Date: Lawsuit filed on June 28, 2020

On June 28, 2020, Animal Outlook, represented by the Richman Law Group, filed a lawsuit against Cooke Aquaculture for misleading and deceptive advertising in violation of the District of Columbia Consumer Protection and Procedures Act. The lawsuit alleges that Cooke’s advertisements that its practices are “sustainable” and “ecologically sound,” and that its salmon are “naturally raised” under “optimal” animal welfare standards constitute false advertising.

Cooke filed four separate motions trying to kill the case, but the court ruled against it on every one. On June 24, 2021, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia denied all four motions, and the case is now proceeding toward trial.

The lawsuit follows the 2019 release of Animal Outlook’s investigation into Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon hatchery in Bingham, Maine, the first-ever undercover investigation of salmon aquaculture in the United States. Our investigation revealed conditions far from “sustainable” or “natural,” including workers slamming, stomping, and slamming fish into concrete; improper veterinary practices; and filthy conditions, including fish with spinal deformities and fungal growths.

Our investigation is far from the first time Cooke has found itself in legal trouble for its irresponsible aquaculture practices which directly contradict its advertising claims. Fines and settlements totaling millions of dollars for violations of laws across multiple states, including the catastrophic release of 250,000 non-native salmon in Washington state, numerous permit violations in Maine and the illegal discharge of pollutants in multiple locations, have plagued Cooke over the past few years.

Cooke’s industrial aquaculture practices are a far cry from the wholesome, responsible image of “sustainable farming” that it actively portrays. Our lawsuit aims to stop Cooke from continuing to mislead and deceive consumers into purchasing its products.

View Complaint

Aquaculture: A Sea of Suffering Photos

Our shocking video illuminates the truth of how these animals are forced to live. Carelessly and cruelly handled, the way fish are treated would be considered unconscionable if they were a dog or even a bird. Despite having a similar ability to feel pain as mammals and other animals, fish do not receive the same protection or consideration.

Our undercover video reveals:

• Workers’ abusive handling of fish, including slamming and stomping on fish, and violently throwing fish, including treating them like basketballs and performing “trick shots”
• Workers cruelly killing fish by slamming them on the ground
• Underfed, hungry fish mistaking the pupils of other fishes’ eyes for food and eating them
• Ineffective anesthetization during vaccination and fin clipping
• Fish thrown into buckets and left to suffocate in piles of dead and dying fish
• Conditions so filthy that fish must be vaccinated
• Painful spinal deformities and fungus growth on fish intended for human consumption, including fungus eating away at the faces of the fish
• Extreme crowding in barren conditions and high death rates of eggs and fish

This investigation also revealed haunting insight from workers at the hatchery, with one saying, “It really bummed me out killing fish like we do. ‘Cause they just suffocate. It’s so rough. Over the years you kinda get desensitized.”

While the aquaculture industry sells itself as a solution to the state of our overfished oceans, there’s a big catch: Millions of farmed fish are subjected to conditions at industrial aquaculture facilities like the one we investigated, where we found widespread cruelty: Fish being slammed, stomped on and thrown long distances, in addition to languishing inside filthy tanks where they are overcrowded and underfed. It’s long past time the fish farming industry is held accountable for the suffering it’s forcing upon animals.

Fish are sensitive, intelligent animals, able to feel pain, fear and stress. In fact, many fish use tools and even recognize themselves in mirrors, a measure used by scientists to determine self-awareness. In fact, human children tend to fail the test until 1.5 to 2 years old. Like other animals, fish are sentient, and their pain sensors are remarkably similar to ours — in fact, our ability to feel pain is likely derived from one of our fish-like ancestors.

Fish, like dogs, cats and people, need space to live, play, exercise and socialize. In hatcheries like Cooke Aquaculture, they are instead crammed into overcrowded tanks, unable to exhibit natural behaviors.

Cooke Aquaculture farms and raises Atlantic salmon to be sold under its marketing branch, True North Seafood⁠—which recently partnered with homemaking icon Martha Stewart to supply salmon for her new seafood line.

Martha Stewart, a self-proclaimed animal lover, shared that she’s happy to partner with True North because the company touts sustainable practices and claims to care about its community. As the world’s major wild fish populations have been cut in half since 1970, commercial fishing is clearly unsustainable for our future. Yet Animal Outlook’s footage reveals just why factory farming fish is not the solution.

Luckily, millions of consumers are realizing that the best way to help fish and to keep our bodies and oceans healthy is by leaving animal products out of our shopping carts and off of our plates.

After being contacted about the investigation, Cory Baker, COO of Marquee Brands (which owns the Martha Stewart True North Line) replied right away, stating that the company will open its own investigation immediately and is committed to “sustainability and of course ensuring cruelty-free practices.”

The only way for Martha Stewart to cut out cruelty from her salmon line is to drop it completely. Please join us today in urging Martha Stewart to stand up for sea animals by ending her True North salmon partnership and instead pave the way to the future of food by investing in a plant-based seafood alternative.

Ocean fishing is dangerous for all marine animals and our planet, but factory farming fish is not the answer. You can protect fish, the planet and yourself by giving up seafood in your diet once and for all.

Make an impact today by saying “no” to this cruel industry and replacing your next seafood meal with one of these more compassionate options.

Sign our investigator’s petition

Cut ties with True North and Cooke Aquaculture.

Keep our cameras rolling

Support our work today so we can continue exposing the truth behind the closed doors of animal agribusiness.

Leave fish out of your shopping cart

The best way each of us can stand up for animals is by simply leaving them off our plates.