Ashley Christian is president of the South Queens Chamber of Commerce. (Rick Conrad)
The Nova Scotia government announced this week that as part of a settlement agreement, Northern Pulp will study the feasibility of opening a paper mill in the Liverpool area.
We asked some people at the South Queens Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting on Thursday for their reaction.
Tim Nickerson, Lyn Oakley and Rosalee Smith at the Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows on Tuesday. (Rick Conrad photo)
By Rick Conrad
For Lyn Oakley, having more fish farms near her home boils down to one thing.
“My biggest concern is poop,” the Eagle Head resident says, referring to the fish waste produced at the facilities. “There is no way that the ocean with its tides is flushing that area. It’s not capable of doing that.”
Oakley was at the Seaside Centre in Beach Meadows on Tuesday with other residents working on their letters to the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board to oppose a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay.
The review board will hold a public hearing on an application by Kelly Cove Salmon to expand its current fish farming operation off Coffin Island, near Liverpool, from 14 pens to 20. It also wants to create new sites off Brooklyn and Mersey Point. The new locations would add another 40 pens to their operation.
The hearing begins March 4 at the Best Western Plus in Liverpool.
If successful, Kelly Cove would farm up to an estimated 1.8 million salmon at the three sites. It currently raises about 400,000 at its location near Coffin Island.
The grassroots group Protect Liverpool Bay is one of five groups granted intervenor status at the hearing. The others are the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, a group of 23 lobster fishermen and Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation.
As part of the review process, anyone can submit comments to the board by Feb. 12. But they must address at least one of eight factors the review board considers under the province’s aquaculture regulations.
That’s why some residents gathered on Tuesday to make sure their letters were in a format that would be accepted by the review board.
Oakley said the session was helpful to learn from other community members.
“These kinds of information sessions make sure that my objections are going to be accepted into the record and my voice will be heard.”
Rosalee Smith, who also lives in Eagle Head, said it’s important for the community to be heard.
“I think numbers speak. The people on the ground, the people who are gonna live next to this, the people who will have to look at this, the people who will be suffering because of this I think need to speak up and say, ‘No, we don’t want it.’”
Protect Liverpool Bay has been fighting the fish farm expansion since 2018. It was on hand to offer any other information to residents about the review hearing process.
Beach Meadows resident Tim Nickerson said he’s working on his own letter, but also wanted to help others with theirs.
“I just think that the ask for the bay is just excessive. It’s just too much for that space to handle.”
Local residents say they are worried about the fish farm’s effects on the lobster fishery, the area’s beaches and other uses of the bay.
They’re also concerned that more fish in more enclosed spaces will mean more pollution, pesticides and antibiotics released into the ocean. They point to sea lice infestations, fish escapes, equipment debris and fish kills.
There are two more information sessions planned at the Seaside Centre, on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
