{"id":9260,"date":"2025-10-06T17:04:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9260"},"modified":"2025-10-06T17:04:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:04:49","slug":"hearings-begin-tuesday-in-cooke-aquacultures-bid-to-expand-liverpool-bay-fish-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/10\/06\/hearings-begin-tuesday-in-cooke-aquacultures-bid-to-expand-liverpool-bay-fish-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearings begin Tuesday in Cooke Aquaculture’s bid to expand Liverpool Bay fish farm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Signs from the group Protect Liverpool Bay. (Protect Liverpool Bay Facebook page)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hearings into a fish farm expansion in Queens County get underway on Tuesday, with opponents saying they\u2019re not confident that regulators will listen to their concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon has applied to Nova Scotia\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearings begin at the Days Inn in Bridgewater on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and are set to run through to Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

RELATED: Read more of QCCR’s coverage of fish farms in Queens County<\/a><\/p>\n

Protect Liverpool Bay has been fighting Cooke\u2019s open-net pen fish farm near the beach since 2018. The <\/span>group has protested the review board\u2019s decision to hold the hearings outside Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Group spokesman Brian Muldoon told QCCR earlier this summer that he\u2019s worried the hearing is just a formality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe they are not listening to the people or residents of Queens County. They\u2019re moving forward with their agenda,\u201d Muldoon said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Still, Protect Liverpool Bay is encouraging its supporters to attend the hearings. It\u2019s also offering to arrange ride shares for people who need transportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Other intervenors are a group of 22 lobster fishermen from Liverpool Bay and the Region of Queens Municipality. It\u2019s unclear whether the <\/span>Wasoqopa\u2019q First Nation and the Brooklyn Marina are still involved.<\/p>\n

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

Chairwoman Jean McKenna and other members of the review board were also replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

The hearings are open to the public. People can also watch a livestream of the sessions by registering on the review board\u2019s website at <\/span>arb.novascotia.ca<\/span><\/a>.<\/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\/10\/arbhearingsbeginoct625.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hearings into a fish farm expansion in Queens County get underway on Tuesday, with opponents saying they\u2019re not confident that regulators will listen to their concerns. Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon has applied to Nova Scotia\u2019s aquaculture review board to add six more cages to its operation near Coffin Island off Beach Meadows Beach. […]<\/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":[1586,3348,362,379,1662,1585,3466,1657,363,1474,241,1587,1476,49],"class_list":["post-9260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-aquaculture","tag-aquaculture-review-board","tag-brian-muldoon","tag-bridgewater","tag-coffin-island","tag-cooke-aquaculture","tag-days-inn","tag-fish-farm","tag-fish-farms","tag-kelly-cove-salmon","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nova-scotia-aquaculture-review-board","tag-protect-liverpool-bay","tag-queens-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9260","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=9260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9263,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9260\/revisions\/9263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}