Fin fish farm proposed for St. Mary’s Bay
An application has been put forward for a proposed new marine fin fish cultivation site in St. Mary's Bay, Digby County.
For the past year, Canadian Salmon Ltd. has been exploring the viability of a proposed phased aquaculture project with development sites near Digby Neck and islands under an option to lease the agreement with Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture.
“We started collecting the data – what we knew we needed to make a professional decision of whether this particular area would be suitable for what we wanted to do,” said Martin Karlsen, project principal and industry veteran, in an interview.
Karlsen said the data was as expected – the area would be quite suitable for aquaculture. The company is looking at growing Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout.
“We are in the process of completing the scoping process which is part of the option to lease agreement,” said Karlsen. “Part of the process is to have information available to the public and stakeholders.”
The company held two virtual public information sessions on Feb. 8 and 9, attended by 47 people. The sessions will be available for online viewing at www. nsaquacultureproject.ca. A survey is also available to complete on the website.
An option to lease is not an aquaculture licence or lease. Any applications arising from the option to lease process will be reviewed by the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board (NSARB). Karlsen said the company plans to proceed with filing an application.
“Our intention is to apply for four sites,” he said, stressing want to walk, not run, if the project comes to fruition. “We do not intend to go full blast. We will apply for what we need in the longer term."
"We're planning to start with one site and go into four sites. Most likely no more than three sites will be stocked at any one time," he said, explaining each site would have 12 cages.
"The way we look at it now, each site will have to have to have its own feeding system so we will start with one site and as we learn and move forward, our intention is to stock each cage with a relatively low number of what it's designed to hold. We don't want to overstock a cage or a site. We want to make sure over time we can collect how much a cage or a site can handle.”
Karlsen said Canadian Salmon Ltd. has not received a lot of feedback yet on their proposed aquaculture farm.
“Some individuals, representatives of some of the groups that have issues with open pen aquaculture, have expressed their concerns and have reminded us of their opinions. There has been also a substantial amount of support in particular from businesses, processors and service providers because we obviously will need fuel, feed, processing, a lot of requirements we will need," Karlsen said. "We don't want to reinvent the wheel. The more we can do with existing operators… all we want to do is become a farmer in the area and play by the rules. We're not the regulators.”
David Tudor, councillor for the Digby Neck area in the Municipality of Digby, says the community intends to oppose the project.
“This community has been fighting salmon cages for over two decades,” he said. “The local community is highly motivated to keep these pens out of the Bay. (The community has) had this fight before andwon. (The community) plans on doing the same again. The municipality is opposed to expansion of the salmon cage industry in the St. Mary's Bay.”
Tudor said, “a particularly difficult aspect of this proposal is that they plan on putting the cages on top of the most lucrative lobster fishing grounds.”
Once an application for a new marine site is referred to the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board (NSARB), within 15 days the NSARB will set a date(s) for a public hearing. A minimum of 60 days public notice required in advance of the hearing.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. The more we can do with existing operators… all we want to do is become a farmer in the area and play by the rules. We’re not the regulators.” Martin Karlsen Project principal and industry veteran