Thank you.
My name is Karen Crocker. I have with me today Brenda Patterson.
I am speaking to you today on the subject of closed containment aquaculture as chair of the St. Mary’s Bay Coastal Alliance, as an ecotourism operator, and as a member of the lobster fishing industry. I live in Freeport, a small fishing village located on Long Island, Nova Scotia. Long Island and Brier Island are on the southwest tip of Nova Scotia. We are nestled between St. Mary’s Bay and the Bay of Fundy.
The combined population of Long Island and Brier Island is approximately 700. The islands were settled in the late 1700s. Throughout the years from 1785 to today, the inhabitants of Long and Brier Islands have depended on the fishery to support their families and community.
My husband is an LFA 34 fisherman, as was his father and his grandfather. The lobster fishery in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 accounts for 40% of Canadian lobster landings. DFO statistics for the 2010-11 season, November to May, show a total of 19,770 metric tonnes of lobster were landed in LFA 34. Since 1995 we have also operated an ecotourism business during the summer, offering whale and seabird boat tours.
Our islands have a vibrant and lucrative lobster fishery. There are currently 42 licence holders fishing from Long and Brier Islands, employing approximately 210 residents full time during the season. This number does not include the spinoff jobs created by our fishery, such as fish plant workers, truck drivers, local buyers, etc. We are resilient.
In addition to our lobster fishery, local fishermen recently developed a community-supported hand-line fishery, similar to community-supported agriculture, CSA, called Off the Hook. Off the Hook was just named runner-up in a global contest called “Solution Search: Turning the Tide for Coastal Fisheries Solutions”. This contest, hosted by National Geographic and Rare, recognizes community-based innovations for near-shore fisheries based on proven success. There were 103 entries from 48 countries, and Off the Hook was honoured to have been awarded one of the top three.
Our communities and our fisheries are now threatened by the presence of open-net fin fish aquaculture. The St. Mary’s Bay Coastal Alliance was formed in 2010 as a response to a lease application for two industrial open-net salmon feedlots in St. Mary’s Bay. These leases would be the largest in Nova Scotia to date and encompass 208 acres of the bay. Each would hold one million salmon.
The alliance membership is made up primarily of LFA 34 licence holders and crew, as well as local landowners and concerned citizens. Since our first petition in the summer of 2010, when over 80% of our residents expressed opposition to the application, our communities have remained allied against these feedlots.
The communities participated in the public process, including a screening-level environmental assessment where such applications are reviewed. At every opportunity our community wrote letters, attended meetings, and expressed concern for the project, and we appealed to the provincial and federal departments to stop the development. Our appeals fell on deaf ears, and the project was given a green light in summer 2011.
Our opposition to open-net aquaculture is focused today on three areas: the displacement of local lobster fishermen, the use of pesticides, and traceability.
With respect to displacement, what immediately alarmed fishermen was the location of the lease and its imprint on traditional fishing grounds. With the approval of the lease, 21 of our local lobster fishermen were displaced from their lobstering grounds. The area encompassed by the lease would make it difficult, if not impossible, for these fishermen to set pots where they had fished for generations. The area of this lease sits on traditional fishing grounds that local fishermen refer to as the “deep hole”. It is an area well known to local fishermen as being abundant in lobster in the fall, at the beginning of the lobster season in November.
In terms of pesticides, we quickly became aware of the growing concerns worldwide regarding sea lice problems that plague large-scale salmon aquaculture and the use of pesticides to treat these problems. It has been well documented that the pesticides used to treat sea lice infestations can be harmful and even fatal to lobster. The recent charges in New Brunswick laid by Environment Canada with respect to lobster deaths caused by pesticide use in open-net aquaculture is evidence of this link.
The decision to put these cages in St. Mary's Bay will mean that pesticides will eventually be used in our bay. Why would the Province of Nova Scotia, with the support of the Government of Canada, want to put at risk an area that is known to be one of the most lucrative lobster grounds in Atlantic Canada? The Atlantic Veterinary College lobster science moult quality report for 2011 listed St. Mary’s Bay lobster as premium hard shell lobster. St. Mary’s Bay is also a lobster nursery. To our knowledge, no one knows what impacts lice-treating pesticides will have on lobster larvae and egg-bearing females. Approval was given anyway to put 200 acres of open-net aquaculture in St. Mary’s Bay.
In regard to traceability, as we all know, consumers are becoming ever more concerned with where their food comes from. Consumers are prepared to pay a premium price for food that they know is healthy and safe. The Lobster Council of Canada just released a report on the lobster industry and full traceability of our product. The consultants found that lobster-buying companies such as restaurant chains and large food distributors are asking for more detailed information from suppliers regarding the origin and processing of the products they are buying. Lobster fishermen in our area are participating in traceability pilot projects. We support traceability, because we know that our waters and our lobster can compete worldwide.
With this new traceability program, we are concerned about the perception by world markets of the quality of our lobster if they are being harvested in and around open-net salmon aquaculture feedlots. The world is becoming increasingly aware of the use of pesticides in the salmon farming industry, and there is concern that the quality of our now healthy natural food source, lobster, will be tainted by being associated with exposure to these chemicals. New Brunswick lobster fishermen have told us that they were afraid to speak out about their concerns on pesticide use and its potential impact upon lobster price and markets.
The world is a smaller place now, and consumers are more demanding. We see studies now recommending that consumers limit their consumption of farmed salmon. If these feedlots are placed in ecologically sensitive areas such as St. Mary’s Bay, what are the implications for our traditional wild fishery? We find it increasingly puzzling to understand why our federal government is not concerned about this very real threat to the viability of our now healthy natural product, lobster. We believe that governments are moving ahead with the desire to increase salmon production in our province without exercising a precautionary approach to this type of industry and its potential to harm our already lucrative and sustainable lobster fishery. Our communities depend on this fishery.
Open fin fish aquaculture is putting the future of our communities and fisheries at risk. Why? Please understand that our coastal communities are not opposed to aquaculture as a whole and welcome new industry and the economic benefits of such endeavours. What we are concerned about is open-net salmon aquaculture, which can put at risk viable traditional wild fisheries. These projects are sold in part because of the supposed jobs they create. What needs to be of concern is the types of jobs these are. The jobs promised by the aquaculture industries are simply not there, and the jobs that come with that industry are primarily minimum wage and part time.
Our traditional wild fisheries employ about 90% of our island residents, with competitive wages. It cannot be disputed that the Nova Scotia lobster fishery is the driving force of Southwest Nova Scotia's economy. Lobster is Canada’s number one seafood export.
It seems that if Nova Scotia were to encourage the companies that want to develop salmon aquaculture to develop more sustainable practices, such as closed containment, we would have the best of both worlds. We would be supporting and protecting a very valuable, traditional, and renewable natural resource—our wild fishery—and also developing a new, non-traditional, sustainable industry: closed containment salmon farms.
The trend for people to seek out healthy, natural, sustainable food sources is growing rapidly and will continue to be very important to those producing these products. We would encourage government to develop industry in line with this growing and important trend.
Thank you.
