Company holding open house to discuss farmed salmon plan
Community concerned by company's plan proposed for St. Mary's Bay
A company that is looking to expand its salmon farming operations into St. Mary’s Bay is inviting the public to an informal open house in Digby on Jan. 15.
With a lot of concern being expressed in the community about the plans, it is likely that a lot of people will take Cermaq up on its offer.
Cermaq Canada is a Norwegian-based company with operations in Norway, Chile, and British Columbia. It is currently investigating the possibility of expanding its salmon farming operations into St. Mary’s Bay, Chedabucto Bay, Mahone Bay and St. Margaret’s Bay.
“For us, this would be a huge undertaking and it will only work if we can find a way to add to the iconic Nova Scotia seafood story, add value for local communities and find a shared path forward,” the company says in an invitation to the open house.
Two sessions are planned on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at the Digby Fire Hall at 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Last month members of the public – and representatives of the concerned community group St. Mary’s Bay Protectors (SMBP) Network – packed a Dec. 9 committee of the whole meeting of the Digby Municipal Council to express concerns over the company’s plans.
SMBP is a group of community organizations, citizens, lobster fishers and business owners concerned about the economic prosperity, social well-being and environmental sustainability of coastal resources.
The group outlined several concerns. Pesticides was one.
“Stocking hundreds of thousands of fish in small areas makes fish farms ideal and unnatural breeding grounds for sea lice – a small crustacean and a natural parasite on wild salmon,” the group said in its presentation to council. “Pesticides such as Slice are used to control sea lice infestations, however, are also toxic to crustaceans including lobster, prawn, crab, shrimp and krill.”
Other pesticides in use also have been shown to have harmful effects on lobster, prawn, crab and shrimp, the group said in its presentation.
Disease is another point SMBP raised. It worries that farmed salmon can spread disease to wild fish because with crowded conditions the salmon are more susceptible to contagious diseases. They pointed to examples of this occurring in other salmon farming operations.
Pollution is a concern, from waste produced by salmon, to untreated sewage to contaminated feed. Other threats to wild stocks and loss of habitat were other areas of concern the group spoke about.
Petitions have also been circulating online, outlining concerns over Cermaq’s plans.
“We believe it will pose risks to wild fish species, pollute existing ecosystems, and eventually, imperil larger aquatic species such as whales that thrive in our area,” reads a petition. “Further, we believe it has the potential to seriously undermine the existing and valuable lobster and scallop industries. The lobster industry employs thousands in District 33/34 alone and is worth over $500 million annually, and the scallop industry in southwest Nova is worth over $100 million per year.”