Marine biologist Alexandra Morton says Nova Scotia’s coastline is slated to become a dump site for the aquaculture industry.
Morton, who has spent 20 years studying the impact of fish farming on wild marine species in British Columbia, and was a prime intervenor in the lengthy Cohen Commission investigation into the relationship between open pen aquaculture and the decimation of the wild salmon stock in British Columbia, is warning that Nova Scotia’s fisheries are in peril.
“There is a obvious conflict between industrial salmon farms and the lobster industry here,” Morton said in an exclusive interview with SCT during a tour of salmon farm sites in Shelburne Harbour and proposed sites in Jordan Bay.
Morton has been on a tour of coastal communities over the past week, stopping in Sheet Harbour, Port Mouton, Jordan Bay, Shelburne and the Digby Neck. She will also visit communities and fishermen in New Brunswick and PEI.
In Jordan Bay, she listened as lobster fishermen Ricky and David Hallet described the lengths that they feel Fisheries and Aquaculture minister Sterling Belliveau has gone to ignore scientific evidence held by his department which points to Jordan Bay being a bad place to put salmon cages.
“These fishermen feel like aquaculture is destroying their way of life, Morton said.”
The Hallett's showed Morton the blueprints from Cooke Aquaculture detailing the specifics of the cages they planned to install for up to one million fish in two separate sites in the bay. "This is outrageous," said Morton on seeing the plans. "I've looked at dozens and dozens of siting plans for fish farms and never seen an attempt to put pens in such shallow water."
In addition to the cages being placed less than four metres from the bottom, Jordan has been known for decades as a valuable lobster nursery. The Hallets and other fishermen in the area also say that the exposure of the bay to wild winter storms and violent seas means that the cages are unlikely to remain in place over the winter season.
"If they put those cages there," says Ricky Hallett of the bay near his home and on which he has fished for thirty-five years," I might as well pack up my gear and get out."
Morton said that, in talking to community members in the various communities, she believes that the Nova Scotia government is placing the fish farms against the express wishes of the various communities. She details the specific of her visits on her blog.
Morton is also in Nova Scotia to give the fifth annual Ransom A. Myers Lecture in Science and Society at Dalhousie University in Halifax on Friday. Morton will discuss the role of government, scientists and citizens in the development of aquaculture and its effects on wild populations.
