Aquaculture

Salmon leases will displace 20 fishermen


Sheldon Dixon will be looking for a new place to fish in the fall. Jonathan Riley photo
Published on June 10, 2011
Published on June 10, 2011
Jonathan Riley Topics : Bays Alliance , Nova Scotia , Westport
Nova Scotia’s minister of aquaculture and fisheries has approved two salmon farms in the middle of a traditional and prolific lobster grounds.

“I can assure you this is not going to have an impact on our traditional fisheries especially our lobster industry," said Minister Sterling Belliveau.

Sheldon Dixon of Tiverton says he and 19 other fishermen will have to find somewhere else to put their traps.

“In that particular spot, DFO has done the studies and it’s a hotspot.,” says Dixon. “When we’re at meetings with them, they have it marked right on their maps, based on our catch logs, they know how many lobster are caught there.”

Information on the Cooke Aquaculture webpage www.aquaculturegrowsns.com says the two leases combined will cover an area of 84 hectares (209 acres).

Nell Halse, a spokesperson for Cooke Aquaculture says the company might apply for one more site in St. Mary’s Bay in the next five years.

“But we’ll have to look at that carefully. We would have to go through the whole application process again.”

She says the company had originally planned to apply for three sites but that after public consultation they decided to reduce that number to two.

“We actually moved our site because of their concerns. They asked us to move to the site where we are now.”

Halse wasn’t able to say exactly who suggested that site.

Karen Crocker of Freeport, head of the Save Our Bays Alliance, says she has no idea who “they” could be.

“I was at that public meeting in Freeport when they asked us to show them a spot where they could put their cages and every fishermen there said there is no spot in St. Mary’s Bay where we are comfortable saying ‘this is a good spot for a salmon farm.’”

One thing is sure, Minister Belliveau says his department had no part in choosing the site.

“What we’re dealing with here is the application from the proponent. They look at the areas and based on good business, they tell us where they would like to locate it.”

Dixon says by times in the fall that the selected area might have 100 traps in it.

“It’s peppered with lobster. In the fall when the lobster come up the bay, they’re hungry, they’ve shed their shells and getting fat right here where they want to put the cages.”

Dixon says this lease arrangement is a big change from the way fisherman have traditionally worked with each other.

“There has never been one fishery where they come in and hold bottom for years and eliminate other fishermen from using that bottom. What you’re looking at here is the privatization of the fishery and the coastline.”

Minister Belliveau says Nova Scotia has 13,000 km of coastline and so there is lots of room for everyone.

“The footprint of this site is very small compared to the overall vastness of our oceans,” he said. “Our fishing industry usually starts from the high-water mark and goes right off to the 50-mile limit. It’s like anything else out there, you learn to fish around it.”

Johnny Graham, a fisherman from Westport, says it’s more complicated than that.

“Usually the fisherman balance themselves out. If I’m fishing here, then Sheldon goes down there. But if they push fishermen off that shore, it’s going to push them onto us, and it’s just putting more boats into a smaller area.”

Dixon says there are other problems with pushing the fishermen offshore.

“With the state of the environment and fuel prices the way they are, wouldn’t it be nice if fishermen could fish inshore?” asks Dixon. “But they want to drive us off this shore. It’s going to burn more fuel and it’s going to cost us more money. None of this is right.”