It used to be that I would joke with people that all issues and problems around aquaculture occur in British Columbia. New Brunswick has now given me an opportunity to be truly national in focus.
The nature of the challenges in New Brunswick is quite significant. There are significant levels of sea lice on farmed salmon in New Brunswick now. New Brunswick farmers are losing fish as a result of very high lice levels. They are at a level that is unheard of in the Pacific Ocean. It's an entirely different biological situation in the Bay of Fundy.
Some of the discussion around what to do next.... I'm sure you may be referring to the article in La Presse from two and a half or three weeks ago; that is perhaps where this came to your attention. Essentially, what farmers have been doing in New Brunswick is seeking authorization to use certain sea lice treatments to reduce sea lice numbers. There's a concern in some parts of the community that those treatments, whilst they will kill sea lice, may have an effect on other organisms, particularly lobster. We have been working very closely with the province on this issue and with Health Canada.
Health Canada is the organization that issues what they call registrations for pesticides through the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to deal with lice, or drugs such as SLICE through the veterinary drugs directorate in Health Canada. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency, PMRA, has recently issued authorizations for a couple of new products used to control lice in New Brunswick. Based on our research and our work with the science assessment people in Health Canada, we're quite confident that the application of the treatments, if done in accordance with the label and requirements and so on, will be safe not only for lobster but for other marine organisms as well and will effectively deal with the issue for the farmers.
Having said that, we're approaching this extremely carefully. The level of caution and the attention to the science behind this is extremely high. We're working quite closely with the province and with Nova Scotia as well on this issue, to ensure that whatever is done to control lice is done in a way that doesn't cause other negative impacts.