Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon escaped into the Pacific waters near Victoria, B.C., and the U.S. company that owns the fish farm is blaming the solar eclipse.

A net holding 305,000 fish at the Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island in Washington State imploded on Saturday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 Atlantic salmon escaped the net.

Cypress Island is located about 50 kilometres east of Victoria.

In a statement, Cooke Aquaculture said the unusually high tides ahead of Monday’s solar eclipse caused the net to implode.

“Exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse caused damage to a salmon farm that has been in operation near Cypress Island for approximately 30 years,” the company said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials are encouraging people who catch fish to take as many of the Atlantic salmon as possible to protect the native Pacific salmon species.

Ron Warren, the fish program assistant director, told CTV Vancouver that there is no known cross-breeding between Pacific and Atlantic salmon, and no known successful spawning of Atlantic salmon in the wild in the Washington State area.

But Canadian environmentalists and some politicians say they are very concerned about the incident.

"I'm alarmed to hear thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped into our Pacific waters," said Fin Donnelly, the MP for the B.C. riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam and the federal NDP's critic for fisheries and oceans.

"These events underscore the need for mandatory land-based, closed containment fish farms in order to protect our wild salmon fishery and the integrity of the marine environment."

B.C. Salmon Farmers Association executive director Jeremy Dunn said it has been over a decade since the last escape of this scale, and recent incidents have seen no more than about 50 fish released.

While the Atlantic salmon are considered invasive, Dunn said they will struggle to compete for food against their more aggressive Pacific relatives.

“Farm animals in any type of farming don’t tend to do well out of their farm environment,” he said. “From an ecological perspective, they will be outcompeted for food by Pacific salmon.”

Dunn said scientists believe this is why attempts at colonizing Atlantic salmon in the region have failed.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press