{"id":6713,"date":"2024-02-20T19:43:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T23:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6713"},"modified":"2024-02-25T18:23:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T22:23:29","slug":"review-board-hears-from-more-than-150-on-liverpool-bay-fish-farm-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/02\/20\/review-board-hears-from-more-than-150-on-liverpool-bay-fish-farm-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Bay fish farm hearings delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Betsy Hartt and Bob Iuliucci, owners of Bear Cove Resources, will make an oral presentation at the upcoming Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board hearing in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Rick Conrad<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPDATE 9:25 p.m. Tuesday<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board hearing into a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay has been delayed until further notice, the board posted<\/a> on its website Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“The hearing scheduled for March 4-8, 2024, in Liverpool, has been adjourned until further notice,” the notice reads. “New dates will be announced here once these have been determined by the board.”<\/p>\n

No reason was given. Elsewhere on the board’s site<\/a>, chairwoman Jean McKenna’s name has been removed. The new chairman is Tim Cranston, a member of the board and a lawyer “with 20 years+ experience as in-house counsel for two award-winning marine bio-tech companies.”<\/p>\n

QCCR has contacted the board with questions about McKenna’s status and the hearing delay.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, more than 150 individuals, businesses and other groups had their comments on the proposed fish farm expansion accepted by the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelly Cove Salmon, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, has applied to expand its operations near Coffin Island and to add two new sites off Brooklyn and Mersey Point.<\/span><\/p>\n

If successful, Kelly Cove\u2019s operation would grow to 60 pens from its current 14. It would mean about 1.8 million salmon would be farmed in the bay, compared to the current estimated 400,000. Farmed trout would also be added at Coffin Island.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the written submissions and oral presentations from the public, five groups have been granted intervenor status: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, a group of 23 lobster fishermen, and Kwilmu\u2019kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

People had until Feb. 12 to submit their comments or ask to make an oral presentation at the hearings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven people or groups<\/a> are giving oral presentations, including Bear Cove Resources Storm-cast Seaweed in East Berlin, owned by Bob Iuliucci and Betsy Hartt.<\/span><\/p>\n

They say they\u2019re worried about the effects of a four-fold increase in salmon and trout farming in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way (the farms are) going to withstand an easterly wind that can bring waves of 10 metres,\u201d Iuliucci said Tuesday in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had storm events (here), in one storm event the shoreline went back about five metres. … <\/span>A net full of fish, it’s hopeless, it would be really unfortunate for everybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Iuliucci says he’s also worried about what would happen if the new farm sites get caught up in tidal surges, especially given the current problems with flooding at Centennial Park on the Liverpool waterfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the park inundated on a regular basis. So now we\u2019re gonna have hundreds of thousands of fish stranded as well and on people\u2019s properties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartt says their customers ask about whether their compost is affected by the current operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe more their gear gets tossed around, the more their gear gets included in the seaweed we collect. And we get customers asking us questions already. ‘Does the fish farm affect the seaweed? Does that mean that I\u2019m going to get microplastics in the seaweed compost I\u2019m buying from you?’ I let them know at this stage, no. But when you consider the magnification of that project, that is going to be a concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the public feedback the review board received was in written submissions. It accepted 146 letters, which are published on its website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of those written submissions oppose Kelly Cove\u2019s application. Twelve support it. Among the supporters are the mayor of Shelburne and businesses who have done business with Cooke.<\/span><\/p>\n

But several other submissions were rejected by the independent board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That included two of the area\u2019s politicians. According to a post on the Social Politics Facebook page<\/a>, Queens MLA Kim Masland had her letter rejected because the board said it must be free of “appearance of any possible influence” by elected officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Masland has spoken out against the project. In her letter<\/a>, posted on her Facebook page, she said the expansion would harm the environment, tourism, the lobster fishery and residents\u2019 general enjoyment of Beach Meadows Beach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Masland could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Premier Tim Houston also came out against<\/a> the project last week, during a luncheon in Liverpool organized by the South Queens Chamber of Commerce.<\/span><\/p>\n

The board also rejected submissions from people who were listed as a member of one of the intervenor groups. It ruled that their interests were already being represented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Region of Queens District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault\u2019s area includes Brooklyn and Beach Meadows. She was one of those whose letter was rejected, and she was also told she could not make a presentation at the hearings, because she is already represented by the Region of Queens as an intervenor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not very happy about it. I\u2019m the one that\u2019s out and about in the community and I\u2019m the one that\u2019s hearing from my constituents and I believe I should be able to speak on their behalf.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have not heard from anybody yet that is in favour of this expansion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to an audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/fishfarmpresentfeb2024.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rick Conrad UPDATE 9:25 p.m. Tuesday The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board hearing into a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay has been delayed until further notice, the board posted on its website Tuesday night. “The hearing scheduled for March 4-8, 2024, in Liverpool, has been adjourned until further notice,” the notice reads. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1759,1337,1586,1761,1763,1762,1758,1662,1585,363,1474,31,1760,1475,1587,1476,24,1764,96],"class_list":["post-6713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-23-lobster-fishermen","tag-acadia-first-nation","tag-aquaculture","tag-bear-cove-resources","tag-betsy-hartt","tag-bob-iuliucci","tag-brookly-marina","tag-coffin-island","tag-cooke-aquaculture","tag-fish-farms","tag-kelly-cove-salmon","tag-kim-masland","tag-kwilmukw-maw-klusuaqn","tag-liverpool-bay","tag-nova-scotia-aquaculture-review-board","tag-protect-liverpool-bay","tag-region-of-queens","tag-social-politics","tag-vicki-amirault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6774,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6713\/revisions\/6774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}