A coalition of Canadian conservation groups and fishing communities has appealed a ruling allowing two salmon aquaculture sites in St. Mary’s Bay. The coalition asks the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to overrule the provincial government’s approval of two new farms that can grow up to two million salmon in the bay, which is part of the Gulf of Maine.
Shortly after Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau approved Cooke Aquaculture’s application for a 10-year lease, the company quickly stocked one of the open-netted sites with salmon.
“We had equipment ready to move,” said Nell Halse, Cooke vice-president of communications.
Halse said the sites will use just a fraction of the bay and environmental impact will be minimized by state-of-the-art feeding technology. Fears about environmental issues are overblown, she contends, and being fanned by a small contingent of outspoken opponents in several fishing communities.
“We are held to a very tight regulatory account,” she said.
Cooke is already working to seek approval for three more sites on the province’s northern coast. The company also maintains processing facilities and farms in Machiasport and Eastport.
But the St. Mary’s Bay Coastal Alliance and the Canadian environmental group Ecojustice are appealing Belliveau’s decision, saying the Minister overstepped his authority when he granted approval for the farms. The national government has the final say on ocean policy, they argue, not the provinces. Even if the court rules that Belliveau was within his rights to make the decision, the coalition contends he failed to follow due process and consider all evidence.
Key Maritime lobstermen collectives have been vocal in their opposition to the project, as have several Nova Scotia island communities that fish in the waters where the farms are located. During one round of public comment, 134 of 135 posted statements about the project were negative. Many locals fear the farms will decimate the area’s lobster industry. Andy Moir, chairman of the Freeport Community Development Association, says the farms have taken over prime lobster habitat and have displaced traps for 25 to 30 lobstermen.
“It’s a big blow directly to our lobster fishing, which we’re totally dependent on here,” Moir said.
Conservation groups are concerned about the farms’ impact on both lobsters and endangered wild Atlantic salmon. They worry that the waste from the farms will cover up lobster breeding ground in the bay. Also, they fear parasites like sea lice will come with the farmed salmon. While the lice could devastate the local bay ecology, treatment for it could be worse, said Matt Abbot, coordinator for Fundy Baykeeper, a New Brunswick-based nonprofit. Both the lice and lobsters are crustaceans; pesticide treatments for the lice can cause lobsters to lose their abilities to shed.
“This is toxic, toxic stuff,” he said.
Many scientific studies show the genetic stock of wild Atlantic salmon is weakened by the presence of farmed salmon. When farm escapees breed with their wild brethren, the resulting offspring lose their genetic adaptations to local conditions, according to the studies. Last year, a new program to track farmed-salmon escape incidents in the Bay of Fundy documented the accidental release of 200,000 salmon.
“Those 200,000 fish swamped the few remaining wild salmon in the area,” said Bob Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation.
Many opposed to the new Cooke project believe the Nova Scotia government fast-tracked the farms with an eye towards jobs and a possible salmon processing plant in the province. On June 16, Minister Belliveau penned an opinion piece saying aquaculture projects can create year-round jobs for fishing communities. But critics like Moir counter that any manufacturing jobs would go to the province’s urban centers, and few jobs will be created in the fishing communities.
“We’ll get all the [waste], our fishing communities will be destroyed, and we’ll get maybe half a dozen low-paying jobs, probably to go out and feed the fish once in a while,” Moir said.
At the heart of the appeal is whether the provincial government followed due process in the decision-making. While Halse admits that aquaculture regulations are not as stringent in Canada as they are in Maine, she says Cooke followed all the rules and brought its experience operating farms in New Brunswick into its plan for farms in Nova Scotia.
In its application, the company says it will follow the same plans with its escapees as it did with its New Brunswick farms. But Abbot believes that Cooke need not be proud of its track record in New Brunswick. The company’s operations have had a host of environmental problems and have lost hundreds of thousands of fish to escapes a year, Abbot argued.
“There are a lot of lessons to be heeded and they’re not being heeded,” Abbot said.
Under Canada’s judicial system, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia will have the final ruling on the appeal. Neither side can appeal to the federal Supreme Court. No timeline has been given on a ruling.
Craig Idlebrook is a freelance writer living in Somerville, Massachusetts