Signs from the group Protect Liverpool Bay. (Protect Liverpool Bay Facebook page)

Hearings into a fish farm expansion in Queens County get underway on Tuesday, with opponents saying they’re not confident that regulators will listen to their concerns.

Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon has applied to Nova Scotia’s aquaculture review board to add six more cages to its operation near Coffin Island off Beach Meadows Beach. It had also applied to add two new farms near Brooklyn and Mersey Point. The review board is looking into only the application to expand the existing site.

Hearings begin at the Days Inn in Bridgewater on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and are set to run through to Friday.

RELATED: Read more of QCCR’s coverage of fish farms in Queens County

Protect Liverpool Bay has been fighting Cooke’s open-net pen fish farm near the beach since 2018. The group has protested the review board’s decision to hold the hearings outside Queens County.

Group spokesman Brian Muldoon told QCCR earlier this summer that he’s worried the hearing is just a formality.

“I believe they are not listening to the people or residents of Queens County. They’re moving forward with their agenda,” Muldoon said. 

“I have no confidence in the board listening to us.”

Still, Protect Liverpool Bay is encouraging its supporters to attend the hearings. It’s also offering to arrange ride shares for people who need transportation.

The group is one of the intervenors at the hearing. Environmental law charity Ecojustice is representing Protect Liverpool Bay on a pro bono basis. But the group says the fight will still likely cost about $25,000 in hiring expert witnesses, and other costs associated with the hearing. 

Other intervenors are a group of 22 lobster fishermen from Liverpool Bay and the Region of Queens Municipality. It’s unclear whether the Wasoqopa’q First Nation and the Brooklyn Marina are still involved.

Hearings had been originally scheduled for March 2024, but they were cancelled shortly after Premier Tim Houston told a business crowd in Liverpool last February that he personally opposed expanded fish farming in Liverpool Bay.

Chairwoman Jean McKenna and other members of the review board were also replaced.

The review board has consistently refused to answer questions from QCCR on any of its decisions or its makeup.

In the leadup to the originally scheduled hearings, more than 150 residents, businesses and community groups filed written submissions with the board. Most opposed the expansion and the new farms.

If Cooke is successful in its application to expand the Coffin Island site, it will have a total of 20 cages, holding up to 660,000 Atlantic salmon, covering an area of 40 hectares or 100 acres.

The hearings are open to the public. People can also watch a livestream of the sessions by registering on the review board’s website at arb.novascotia.ca.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Debris from the fish farm near Coffin Island on Beach Meadows Beach in 2021. (Rick Conrad file photo)

Supporters and opponents of a fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay will get a chance to make their case in front of Nova Scotia’s aquaculture regulator after all.

The province’s aquaculture review board will hear an application in October from Kelly Cove Salmon to expand its current operation at Coffin Island, just off Beach Meadows Beach in Queens County.

Kelly Cove Salmon is owned by seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture. It applied in 2019 to expand its salmon farming operation off Coffin Island near Liverpool, and to add two new farms off Brooklyn and Mersey Point. 

All three applications would have increased Cooke’s operation to 60 pens from 14 and include trout as well as salmon. It would have meant up to 1.8 million farmed salmon in Liverpool Bay, compared to about 400,000 now.

The board had scheduled hearings for those proposals for March 2024. But it indefinitely adjourned the matter that month with no explanation.

According to groups involved in the hearing, Cooke applied to the board this June for a hearing on only the Coffin Island expansion.

The review board held a conference call with Kelly Cove and some intervenors last week. Hearing dates were set for Oct. 7, 8, 9 and 10 in Liverpool. 

Originally, the board had set aside only two days. But after lawyers for community group Protect Liverpool Bay objected, the board added two more hearing dates. The group is represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice.

“So there was no consultation at all in picking the dates,” said Brian Muldoon, spokesman for the group which has been fighting fish farms in the area since 2018.

“So our lawyers wrote to the ARB and said this is not reasonable and the ARB added two more dates.”

A board spokesman would not confirm the dates or comment on any upcoming hearings. He said any new information on hearings in Liverpool would be posted online.

A few days after this story was posted, the review board updated its website with the hearing notice.

The Region of Queens was one of the intervenors in the original hearings. Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR this week that the municipality still opposes the expansion at Coffin Island.

“We’re staying the course,” he said. 

“Beach Meadows Beach is the beach where we have municipal amenities. That’s where we have our infrastructure, and we want to make sure that that beach continues to be a really attractive and great place for locals and for visitors to use, and so that’s certainly one element of the opposition to the expansion at that site. ”

Muldoon said he’s worried about the hearings in October. 

“I believe they are not listening to the people or residents of Queens County. They’re moving forward with their agenda. They are going to put these fish farms over the areas where our local lobster fishermen lay their spring traps. This is taking income and disrupting our lobster industry. Right there, they should say, OK, we’re dismissing this application based on the data that we received that this is where lobster fishermen have been fishing for decades. And they’re going to turn around and ignore this information? It’s absurd, totally absurd.

“I have no confidence in the board listening to us.”

In the leadup to the originally scheduled hearings, more than 150 residents, businesses and community groups filed written submissions with the board. Most opposed the expansion and the new farms.

Five groups were granted intervenor status at the hearings: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay, and Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation. 

Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law in Halifax represents the lobster fishermen.

He said his clients are still concerned about how the expansion will affect their fishing grounds and how new pens will affect their ability to set and reach their traps.

“Ever since the original hearing was postponed without a date, I think everyone was hopeful that maybe the entire application would be withdrawn but that’s not the case so we’ll deal with the revised application.”

Joel Richardson, spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture, said he didn’t have time for an interview. But in an emailed statement, he wrote that the company “welcomes the opportunity to appear before the aquaculture review board to seek approval of our applications which have been in the provincial system for many years.

“At every step of the way, Kelly Cove has complied with the application process. At the aquaculture review board hearings our representatives will present how the company meets all the regulatory criteria.”

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told a business luncheon in Liverpool in February 2024 that he personally opposed new fish farms in Liverpool Bay, though he said he supports the aquaculture industry. 

It was shortly after that that the board postponed and then indefinitely adjourned the hearings.

The Nova Scotia government appointed a new board chair, and some other new members, in February 2024. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below