Pacific fish spill doesn’t pose concerns for Nova Scotia operations:minister

“They (farms) had a year to bring everything up to scratch on existing sites,” he said.

In an interview Thursday, Cooke Aquaculture spokeswoman Nell Halse said the New Brunswick-based company purchased the Washington farm, which uses an older containment system of steel cages, last year.

Halse said Cooke applied to state regulators last February for a permit to make changes to the pens at the site and still hasn’t gotten the go-ahead. She said the plan is to install newer technology within the next few months when the mature salmon are harvested.

Susanna Fuller of the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre said any chance of an escape is concerning because of the threats disease and inbreeding pose to wild populations of Atlantic salmon, which are listed as an endangered species.

Fuller said strict containment protocols are needed immediately to at least reduce the risks, pointing out that there have been incidents of fish escaping in Atlantic Canada in the past.

One saw 20,000 salmon escape from a Cooke-owned farm on Newfoundland’s south coast in September, 2013. The company said a strong current pulled down a floating salmon pen.

Local fishermen were able to net 2,000, while the federal Fisheries Department said many of the farmed fish were eaten by seals and other large fish.

“The onus and the responsibility on the company needs to be much stronger,” said Fuller. “I don’t think we have any way to manage that kind of escapement here (Washington) and it’s probably even more significant because of the critical state of our wild (salmon) population.”

Asked about concerns in New Brunswick, a spokesperson for that province’s aquaculture department said in an email Thursday they are “aware of” what happened in Washington. Anne Bull said New Brunswick fish farms are required to meet federal and provincial requirements, and there have been no breaches reported since January 2015.

It’s unclear exactly how many fish escaped in the Washington state incident, which is being attributed to unusually high tides. It sparked immediate concerns of the potential effects of the fish intruding in waters that are home to Pacific salmon.

On Wednesday federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canadian officials were communicating with U.S. regulators and surveying the area near British Columbia to ensure potential impacts are minimized.

Halse said the company originally estimated the loss of upwards of 4,000 fish from two steel cages at the site, but that number changed as tidal conditions deteriorated over the weekend.

“On Sunday afternoon the whole system basically collapsed in on itself, so we knew we were dealing with a greater fish escape, but we still have many fish that are still in the nets.”

Halse was asked about critics who point to the incident as proof similar escapes could happen again in areas such as Canada’s East Coast.

“Our experience on the East Coast has been very good. It’s not to say that we have not have not had storm events with some damage, but the experience of fish loss has been minimal, certainly in the most recent years.”

In late February the Nova Scotia government reported damage caused by winter storms at Cooke’s site in Shelburne Harbour on the province’s southwestern shore.

At the time officials said the damage killed an undetermined number of salmon, and there were also reports from the area that several fish had escaped their pens.

Both Colwell and Halse did not share firm numbers, but both confirmed Thursday that the numbers of fish killed in the incident numbered less than 100.

Cooke Aquaculture has operations in the Atlantic provinces, United States, Chile, Spain, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Pacific fish spill doesn’t pose concerns for Nova Scotia operations:minister

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