Fish Farm Application Not Approved for Shoal Bay

Breaking News: March 13 2013

Fish Farm Application Not Approved for Shoal Bay

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.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has raised concerns about the proposed site's potential impact on wild salmon populations.

Sterling Belliveau, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, stated: "After reviewing the evidence I was not satisfied that the science supported approving the site."

http://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20130313004

March 13, 2013  Chronicle Herald

Province rejects fish farm application
BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

Considered moderate risk to wild salmon
The Nova Scotia government has rejected an application from Snow Island Salmon to allow a fish farm in Shoal Bay.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau says during the 22-month review process, Fisheries and Oceans Canada expressed concern about the salmon farm’s impact on wild salmon in the bay near Sheet Harbour.

Read the whole article here
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/969277-province-rejects-fish-farm-application#.UUCVrLKH7yw.twitter

March 13 2013 The Canadian Press

Fish farm rejected by N.S. government, risk to wild salmon cited

The Nova Scotia government has rejected an application from Snow Island Salmon to allow a fish farm in Shoal Bay.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau says during the 22-month review process, Fisheries and Oceans Canada expressed concern about the salmon farm's impact on wild salmon in the bay near Sheet Harbour.

Read the whole article here:
http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/fish-farm-rejected-by-n-s-government-risk-to-wild-salmon-cited-1.1193715#ixzz2NQwQ3a1q

March 13 2013 CBC News

NDP rejects a fish farm application for the first time
 

In December, the Nova Scotia government approved a controversial proposal to build two salmon farms in Jordan Bay, near Shelburne. (CBC)

In an unprecedented move the NDP government in Nova Scotia has rejected a fish farm application.

It was a salmon project proposed for Shoal Bay, on the province's Eastern Shore.

Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau said it was a decision based on science.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/03/13/ns-fish-farm-rejection.html?cmp=rss

March 13 2013 Chronicle Herald

Eastern Shore fish farm bid rejected
BY BRUCE ERSKINE BUSINESS REPORTER

Ottawa: Shoal Bay plan posed moderate risk to wild salmon

The province has rejected Snow Island Salmon Inc.’s application to build a fish farm in Shoal Bay.

(…)Snow Island said in a news release that its Scottish parent company, Loch Duart, will need to determine if it will maintain its operations in the province in light of the government’s decision.

Read the whole article here:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/969277-eastern-shore-fish-farm-bid-rejected

Province Rejects Second Salmon Farm - But Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore not Celebrating Yet

Interview with Marike Finlay, president of APES
BY ERICA BUTLER

Marike Finlay Holds Petition Against Open Pen Salmon Farming on the Eastern Shore. [Photo: Miles Howe]

HALIFAX — Residents of Shoal Bay are breathing a sigh of relief since the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA) announced it would not grant a lease to Snow Island Salmon for an 18 hectare open pen salmon farm off their coast. A similar application for a salmon feedlot at nearby Spry Harbour is still pending.

"We were almost hopeless," says Marike Finlay, president of Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES), a group formed to oppose open net pen operations at Shoal Bay and Spry Harbour. In the past two years, four new ocean-based salmon feedlot sites have been proposed and approved in other coastal Nova Scotia communities, despite community opposition. "Everybody said you've got to do what you do, but you've got to expect that [the lease] is going to be granted anyway," says Finlay.

Read the whole article here:

http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/audio/province-rejects-second-salmon-farm-association-pr/16806

Radio Interview with Ralph Surette: The politics of fish farming

Ralph Surette is a political columnist who's been following the provincial government's environmental record.

http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns/2013/03/15/the-politics-of-fish-farming/#.UUMSHRdiGow.facebook

Additional Scientific Reasons for not granting open pen licenses to Snow Island in Shoal Bay, from Inka Milewski

The province is being very selective regarding DFO Science when it singles out Atlantic salmon as the reason for rejecting the site. While Atlantic Salmon is an issue DFO also flagged potential problems with the large area of sea bottom that would become anoxic or dead and lobster. See attachments below.