{"id":9310,"date":"2025-10-10T17:43:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T20:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9310"},"modified":"2025-10-10T17:44:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T20:44:28","slug":"fish-farm-hearings-wrap-up-as-fishermen-region-of-queens-experts-testify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/10\/10\/fish-farm-hearings-wrap-up-as-fishermen-region-of-queens-experts-testify\/","title":{"rendered":"Week of fish farm hearings wraps up as fishermen, Region of Queens experts testify"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board finished in-person hearings Friday into Kelly Cove Salmon’s application to expand its operation in Queens County. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

There could be a decision on a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board wrapped up a week of hearings Friday afternoon in Bridgewater into Kelly Cove Salmon\u2019s application to add to its Atlantic salmon operation near Coffin Island, off Beach Meadows Beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelly Cove, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, originally wanted to expand the Coffin Island site and add two new farms in Brooklyn and Mersey Point. But it decided to pursue only the expansion for now.<\/span><\/p>\n

That will add another six pens for a 20-cage farm, with up to 660,000 fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyers for four intervenors were at the hearings this week: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay, and Kwilmu\u2019kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which includes the Wasoqopa\u2019q First Nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experts from the Region of Queens and the lobster fishermen were cross-examined on Friday morning, with a panel of three fishermen testifying in the afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The intervenors have various concerns with the expansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Community group Protect Liverpool Bay says it will harm an ecologically sensitive area and risk the lucrative lobster industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kwilmu\u2019kw Maw-Klusuaqn objection concerns the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture not properly consulting local Mi\u2019kmaq communities on areas affecting their treaty rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Region of Queens is concerned about how the operation could affect fish habitats and local tourism.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the lobster fishermen are worried about how an expanded fish farm would affect sensitive lobster fishing grounds and populations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Stewart, a retired lobster fisherman near Moose Harbour, and two other fishermen were cross-examined on Friday by Kelly Cove’s lawyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fishermen were asked how much of the lobster grounds usually fished would be affected by the Coffin Island expansion. She also challenged Stewart on underwater video taken by one of the company’s experts that appeared to show lobster living unharmed under the current fish farm.<\/p>\n

Stewart told QCCR after the hearing that Kelly Cove\u2019s scientific studies aren\u2019t telling the whole story about the lobster grounds and aquaculture\u2019s impact on juvenile and baby lobsters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have concerns about the whole process,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI think they try to do science-based studies and they’ve missed a mark there where there’s a lot of science that’s lacking of what’s going on in these bays. \u2026 So the board\u2019s not getting the full story as far as us speaking. Hopefully through the submissions that we’ve put in and the ones that we’re going to put in, they’ll understand exactly how we feel and our thoughts on the matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the evidence for the hearing was collected based on Kelly Cove\u2019s much larger original application. The board didn\u2019t allow the parties to amend their evidence to account for only the Coffin Island expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fishermen\u2019s lawyer Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law said it\u2019s challenging to argue the case given that restriction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we thought that the process should have been restarted, given the significant change in scope of the application. \u2026 But anyway, the board didn’t allow that, so we just have to work with that challenge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

James Gunvaldsen Klaassen is with Ecojustice, which is representing Protect Liverpool Bay at the hearings. He said his clients were pleased they finally got a chance to air their concerns about Kelly Cove\u2019s plans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s obviously a huge concern of our clients that, you know, the issues with aquaculture and the impacts on Liverpool Bay are well understood by the board, and we feel we did a good job in explaining things as best we could, given the structure of this hearing. and I have every confidence that the board will make a good decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The last session of the hearings will be virtual on Oct. 31 as the intervenors will get a chance to cross-examine Kelly Cove\u2019s experts conclusions on lobster habitat in the area. After all the groups file their final written submissions with the three-member panel, the board has 30 days to release its decision.<\/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\/arbhearingsfridayoct1025.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There could be a decision on a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay by the end of the year. The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board wrapped up a week of hearings Friday afternoon in Bridgewater into Kelly Cove Salmon\u2019s application to add to its Atlantic salmon 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":[1777,1586,2017,1662,1585,3480,1657,363,3482,1767,1474,1760,1587,3481,1476,24,1661,3279],"class_list":["post-9310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-22-lobster-fishermen-of-liverpool-bay","tag-aquaculture","tag-beach-meadows-beach","tag-coffin-island","tag-cooke-aquaculture","tag-ecojustice","tag-fish-farm","tag-fish-farms","tag-james-gunvaldsen-klaassen","tag-jamie-simpson","tag-kelly-cove-salmon","tag-kwilmukw-maw-klusuaqn","tag-nova-scotia-aquaculture-review-board","tag-peter-stewart","tag-protect-liverpool-bay","tag-region-of-queens","tag-salmon","tag-wasoqopaq-first-nation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310","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=9310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9313,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9310\/revisions\/9313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}