Within 2-3 year from the start of fish farming operations in Port Mouton Bay, fishers observed declines in catches. Fishermen and scientists worked together on a study about the reasons for the decline.
With scientists deadlocked about the potential risks of aquaculture, B.C.’s salmon farming industry should be shifted out of sensitive wild salmon migration pathways, federal fisheries minister Jonathan Wilkinson says.
The minister for Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard is signalling a policy shift, for the whole West Coast, toward the model developed by the B.C. government that resolved a decades-long conflict over fish farming in the Broughton Archipelago.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell will lead a delegation of 18 Industry representatives and government officials on a taxpayer funded junket to Tasmania
An article about the Mythical Benefits of Farmed Salmon in Nova Scotia by Ron Neufeld and Kathaleen Milan from Coastal Community Advocates an organization that APES is a member of.
Transparency and Accountability in Aquaculture Operations
On June 18th, 2018 the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favour of more transparent governance by ordering the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture to release information that it had denied to two concerned Nova Scotia residents.
I woke up on Friday morning and realized I simply had to attend the ‘No Pipe’ Rally in Pictou. Clearly many hundreds of my fellow Nova Scotians woke up and felt precisely the same way. When it comes to the environmental impact upon the coastal waters of this province, it is about time we got our act together. Just as we should not allow open net pen fish farming for a dozen compelling reasons, similarly we should not even consider the so called pipe solution that Northern Pulp is proposing …
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is proposing regulations that would substantially alter the way the Canada Fisheries Act is applied to aquaculture activities.
“The aquaculture industry has a knack for portraying the sector as a victim of too many regulations. Yet, like every other food and livestock industry in Canada, it is subject to the same Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations designed to protect public health,” writes Inka Milewski. (ADRIEN VECZAN / Staff)
A publicity campaign by the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA) about the success of the region's industrial fish farms in combating sea lice infestations success is not telling the real story, according to some whose job it is to monitor fish and marine habitat health.
Over two decades, at least $138million of taxpayer money has compensated Canadian fish farms for sick, culled stocks.
All the culls were in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Several East Coast environmental groups joined forces recently to count up the total cost of all known payouts.
Last year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency gave out $13-million in compensation to Cooke Aquaculture when it was forced to kill salmon from its Shelburne fish farms.
The brand new 70 minutes film ‘Salmon Confidential’ (released in February 2013) follows biologist Alexandra Morton as she unravels the mysteries of BC's declining salmon stocks using some of the world's top fish labs. It documents Morton's journey as she attempts to overcome roadblocks thrown up by government agencies and bring critical information to the public. http://salmonconfidential.ca/
Days before the end of 2012, a Canada-wide campaign has been launched by SalmonFeedlotBoycott. The group calls for Canadians to stop purchasing and consuming salmon that has been raised in open-net feedlots.
Sheet Harbour: In late 2012, the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore asked for, and obtained, environmental monitoring data for the Owl's Head salmon farm from the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. The Owl's Head lease is owned by a subsidiary of the Scottish company, Loch Duart.
Dr Alexandra Morton, who has spent 20 years studying the impact on wild marine species in British Columbia, has been on a week-long tour of marine communities affected by existing or proposed open net salmon feedlots.
Her concerns with the aquaculture industry include fish waste accumulating beneath the pens, use of toxic chemicals, and spreading diseases.
The HEALTHY BAYS NETWORK, a provincial network of coastal community groups and others who are opposed to OPEN NET PEN FISH FEEDLOTS asked the four main political parties in the provincial election the following three questions.
Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray has done something none of her predecessors in the role has been able to accomplish; and it’s mind-blowing for those of us who’ve been fighting industrial salmon farming in the ocean for 30 years or more.
Community Meeting and Book Launch October 4th at 6:30 p.m.RESCHEDULED for TUESDAY October 18 @ 6:30 p.m. Read More Memory Lane Heritage Village, Lake Charlotte
The Healthy Bays Network (HBN)and the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES) did a poll asking all municipal candidates about whether they favored a transition out of the water of Marine Based Fish Farms.
Please look to see the responses from the Candidates of District 2 who are running to represent the Eastern Shore.
The Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore is one of the founding members of a provincial network of community organizations fighting to keep our harbours Finfish Feedlot free. The Healthy Bays Network will be working together everywhere in the province when we are faced with this dirty industry. http://www.healthybays.ca/
Consumers should know that when they buy salmon in the stores that it could contain ISA virus. Companies are allowed to sell ISA infected salmon. The company named in this article is a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture that wants to expand in Nova Scotia with the provinces support. SAY NO to MARINE BASED FINFISH FARMS!!
The provincial government and Cooke Aquaculture say that Fish Farms can co-exist with our lucrative lobster fishery. They are relying on a study done by a scientist whose work is funded by Cooke Aquaculture.
Farmed salmon production in Nova Scotia has increased from 1,120 mt in 1995 to 11,546 mt in 2017 (That is a 1000% increase). The number of people employed full-time in finfish aquaculture is about the same in 2017 (108) as in 1995 (100) and part-time employment has dropped 86% from 211 in 1995 to 46 in 2017.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘limbo’ as “an uncertain situation that you cannot control and in which there is no progress or improvement”. This seems to describe the current situation in that part of the Eastern Shore identified by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) as an ‘Area of Interest” (AOI) for the establishment of an Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA).
What is the Position of the ASSOCIATION for the PRESERVATION of the EASTERN SHORE (APES) on the Proposed Eastern Shore Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA)?
Protecting the Pristine Harbours of the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia
In January 2012 a few people happened to see a small notice in the Halifax paper that said there would be a public meeting as required by theFisheries Act to present 3 applications for finfish licenses on the Eastern Shore.
A Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador judge has overturned a provincial minister's decision to release a proposed Placentia Bay salmon farming project from further environmental assessment.
From the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES)
"The provincial government cannot continue to say that the recently presented aquaculture regulations, as they refer to ocean based salmon/trout feedlots, reflect the implementation of the Doelle-Lahey report", says Wendy Watson Smith, spokesperson for the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES).
More than 400 people from community organizations across Nova Scotia turned out for a rally in Halifax on Thursday, January 8th to issue a joint call for aquaculture reform.
APES called and more than 150 citizens from the Eastern Shore travelled nearly two hours from the eastern edge of HRM to march on the Legislature Friday to demand a moratorium on the licensing of open pen salmon feedlots in HRM’s Eastern Shore Bays. They were joined by around 40 more anti-salmon farm protesters from across the province.
Eastern Shore residents plead for an end to open pen fish farming in NS
Marike Finlay, president of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, on concerns about fish farming off Nova Scotia's coastline and the metro bus line campaign launched by the association.
Halifax: Seven years after the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NS DFA) issued their first and only report on environmental monitoring at aquaculture sites in the province, an updated report, prepared for the Atlantic Coalition for Aquaculture Reform (ACAR), indicates that open pen finfish farms are having a negative impact on the environment.
27 February 2013 More than 90% of the residents of Shoal Bay and Spry Harbour have signed petitions banning the imposition of open pen salmon feedlots in their inshore waters. A number of citizens have also erected ban signs along Highway #7 where it passes through the two communities.
In the wake of news that ISA-diseased farmed salmon is being processed for human consumption, Eastern Shore residents have launched a bold new billboard campaign designed to educate consumers about the possible health risks associated with eating open pen farmed salmon.
The province has not approved an application by Snow Island Salmon, a subsidiary of Loch Duart, Scotland, for a new salmon aquaculture site in Shoal Bay, near Sheet Harbour, HRM.
Following a recent international workshop on closed containment, Bill Taylor, President of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, comments on the benefits of using land based, closed-containment technology to grow Atlantic salmon.
On September 3rd, five Association members met with Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Colwell to discuss a range of issues regarding open net pen on the Eastern Shore
Public meeting in Sheet Harbour demonstrated once again that the Eastern Shore community is deeply concerned about the ongoing threat of open net pen in their coastal waters.
APES was formed in February 2012 when communities on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia became aware of and concerned about proposed applications to establish Open Pen Finfish Farms in our harbours. The communities came together and concluded that not only would this industry pollute our waters but would threaten our backbone industries of lobster fishing and tourism.
The past year has been a very busy one for APES in its ongoing efforts to keep open-pen fish farms out of the coastal bays and inlets of the Eastern Shore.
The Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore has joined more than 116 organizations from across Nova Scotia to ask for an immediate moratorium on new licenses for open pen finfish aquaculture licences in the province.
Loch Duart pride themselves on being sustainable. How true is this claim? Don Staniford takes a closer look on the Scottish salmon company who once applied for open-pen leases on the Eastern Shore.
A letter from concerned community groups This is an open letter from community groups concerned about the recent findings of sea lice on farmed salmon by biologist Alexandra Morton:
On Jan 21 2013 in Norway, the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency (Klif) announced that Anti-lice agents used in fish farming can cause serious harm to the wider environment, according to a study published by the organization.
"Ocean based fish farming and organic don´t mix“, says the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a national, non-profit organization founded to protect human health and the environment.
At eight active salmon farms run by Loch Duart Limited the average monthly lice count was between January and June 2013 at least twice the industry’s own threshold, in February, March and April even more than three times the industry’s threshold.
One year after salmon were harvested and the lease surrendered, a study has found that the sea bottom under an open net pen fish farm at Sandy Point in Shelburne Harbour is still toxic and marine life still has not recovered. The former fish farm is the site of a multi-year study examining the recovery of the sea bottom.
Inka Milewski, Science Advisor, Conservation Council of New Brunswick
DFO, provincial regulators and the aquaculture industry claim that fallowing (removing fish from a farm) for as little as two months to two year will allow the sediments to recover. Research shows that the return of marine life in the sediments takes much longer.
Don Staniford who visited Loch Duart’s operations in Lochmaddy, Scotland, on 18 November 2012 notes:
“Loch Duart markets itself as 'The Sustainable Salmon Company' but data obtained from the Scottish Government reveal that Loch Duart's sites during 2012
suffered from Epitheliocistis (Chlamydia), Salmonid Alphavirus (Pancreas Disease) and Vibrio species (Winter Ulcer).”