Submit your comments on Snow Island Salmon Aquaculture Leases

Suggestions for the Preparation of Comments Re Snow Island Salmon Finfish Aquaculture Leases/Licences, Owl’s Head and Ship Harbour

Deadline for submissions: August 2, 2019

Address to submit written comments: Aqua.Admin@novascotia.ca

• Identify yourself: name, mailing address, civic address, phone number, e-mail (be sure to include it all)

• Describe how you are connected to the aquaculture renewal site.

• Comments from those living close by, adjacent to the site will have more clout.

• Comments from year round residents will have more clout than seasonal residents but all input is helpful.

• Indicate if your property looks on the site, or if you use the waters around the site for whatever reason: recreational boating, recreational or commercial fishing.

• It is also appropriate to mention if you are concerned about a possible impact on your property value due to abandoned gear on the shoreline or smelly or noisy operations and commercial trucks delivering supplies to and from the site using off-highway roads you also use.

• Add any observations you might have from Snow Island’s previous operations. Were they good neighbours? Include any comments you might have based on your own experience. Do you think Snow Island Salmon will comply well with government regulations in the future. Remember that the leases and licences of ten years duration, renewable for another ten.

Being opposed to finfish aquaculture per se for whatever reasons will not be sufficient to register a veto regarding this particular site. However, it is still useful to submit concerns about the impact of these open pen, finfish aquaculture operations on coastal communities and marine waters of the Eastern Shore including recreational and wild fish and their habitats. The government will be interested in if the Eastern Shore is stillopposed to finfish aquaculture as it was five years ago when the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore was revitalized in opposition to three proposed finfish aquaculture sites: Spry Bay, Shoal Bay and Beaver Harbour.

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To make sure your concerns are heard you need to pay close attention to ALL of the following:

Aquaculture Lease and Licence Decisions (from the NS Department of Agriculture Food and Fisheries website)

The Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture invites members of the public to provide written comment on aquaculture applications. To be considered by the Administrator, a written submission from a member of the public must meet ALL of the following requirements:

1. it must identify the person making the comments and include contact information (mailing address, civic address, phone number, e-mail);

2. it must describe how the person making the comment is connected with the matter to be determined;

3. it must be submitted within the 30-day period specified in the notice published

4. for marine sites it must be in relation to 1 or more of the following factors to be considered by the Administrator when making a decision:

   1. the optimum use of marine resources;

   2. the contribution of the proposed operation to community and Provincial economic development;

   3. fishery activities in the public waters surrounding the proposed aquacultural operation;

   4. the oceanographic and biophysical characteristics of the public waters surrounding the proposed aquacultural operation;

   5. the other users of the public waters surrounding the proposed aquacultural operation;

   6. the public right of navigation;

   7. the sustainability of wild salmon;

   8. the number and productivity of other aquaculture sites in the public waters surrounding the proposed aquacultural operation

Here are the links to the Owl’s Head and Ship Harbour lease, licence renewals:

http://novascotia.ca/aquaculture/public-information/public-notice/2019renewals/AQ_0833-Admin-Hearing.pdf

http://novascotia.ca/fish/aquaculture/public-information/public-notice/2019renewals/AQ_0772-Admin_Hearing.pdf