{"id":9092,"date":"2025-08-19T16:20:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9092"},"modified":"2025-09-02T14:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:03:04","slug":"liverpool-bay-fish-farm-expansion-back-on-the-menu-in-october-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/08\/19\/liverpool-bay-fish-farm-expansion-back-on-the-menu-in-october-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Bay fish farm expansion back on the menu in October hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Debris from the fish farm near Coffin Island on Beach Meadows Beach in 2021. (Rick Conrad file photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Supporters and opponents of a fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay will get a chance to make their case in front of Nova Scotia\u2019s aquaculture regulator after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The province\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All three applications would have increased Cooke\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The board had scheduled hearings for those proposals for March 2024. But it indefinitely adjourned the matter that month with no explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to groups involved in the hearing, Cooke applied to the board this June for a hearing on only the Coffin Island expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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. <\/span><\/p>\n

“So our lawyers wrote to the ARB and said this is not reasonable and the ARB added two more dates.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few days after this story was posted, the review board updated its website with the hearing notice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re staying the course,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>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. \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Muldoon said he\u2019s worried about the hearings in October.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>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. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have no confidence in the board listening to us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law in Halifax represents the lobster fishermen.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEver since the original hearing was postponed without a date, I think everyone was hopeful that maybe the entire application would be withdrawn but that\u2019s not the case so we\u2019ll deal with the revised application.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was shortly after that that the board postponed and then indefinitely adjourned the hearings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia government appointed a new board chair, and some other new members, in February 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/newfishfarmhearingsaug1925.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporters and opponents of a fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay will get a chance to make their case in front of Nova Scotia\u2019s aquaculture regulator after all. The province\u2019s 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 […]<\/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":[1777,3348,3349,362,462,363,1767,1768,1760,39,1475,68,3350,2645,2266,1587,1476,49,24,226],"class_list":["post-9092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-22-lobster-fishermen-of-liverpool-bay","tag-aquaculture-review-board","tag-arb","tag-brian-muldoon","tag-brooklyn-marina","tag-fish-farms","tag-jamie-simpson","tag-juniper-law","tag-kwilmukw-maw-klusuaqn","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-bay","tag-lobster","tag-lobster-fishermen","tag-lobster-fishery","tag-lobster-fishing","tag-nova-scotia-aquaculture-review-board","tag-protect-liverpool-bay","tag-queens-county","tag-region-of-queens","tag-scott-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","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=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9135,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions\/9135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}