L E T T E R T O T H E E D I T O R
Damaged Fish Pens & Fisheries Management
Damaged open net fin fish pens in Jordan Bay, Nova Scotia, July 5, 2014. Sindy Horncastle photo
Dear Premier McNeil,
The storm on July 5 was the sixth storm since Nov. 2013 that caused extensive damage to both open pen sites in Jordan Bay. Seventeen bird nets, each 90 feet in diameter, have been lost, bringing the total count of lost bird nets to 31, in our bay alone. Once lost, these nets become permanent and indiscriminate “ghost fishing nets.” There is visible, severe structural damage to several cages at both sites.
The likelihood that there have been fish escapes is great, yet, on July 8, three days after the latest storm, our community was told by senior NSDFA staff that they were not aware of the severe damage to the Jordan Bay sites.
In fact, there is no evidence that the NSDFA has ever made an independent site visit to investigate any of our community reports of the likelihood of large numbers of fish escapes in previous storms. Without assessing the damage to equipment above and below the ocean surface, the NSDFA has no accurate knowledge of the numbers of fish remaining at the Jordan Bay sites.
The NSDFA has proven itself incapable of providing adequate oversight or protection to the mainstay of our local economy, our productive lobster breeding grounds, lobster fishery and irish moss harvest.
Instead, Jordan Bay has become a receptacle for aquaculture site sewage and litter. While local residents gather up aquaculture site debris from the shoreline, Cooke Aquaculture has been blocking access to a public road and a public wharf, using them as work stations to do repairs. Has your government given a private company permission to block a public road and wharf ?
What is it going to take for you to acknowledge the failure of the Jordan Bay sites? In the interest of protecting the lobster fishery, lobster nursery and irish moss harvest, leases #1358 and #1359 must be immediately revoked.
Sindy Horncastle
Jordan Bay, NS
1-902-875-4771