Public hearings set to begin on Digby County fish farm boundary expansion

TheNova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board will be holding up to four days of public hearings on the application by Kelly Cove Salmon Limited to expand the boundaries of itsfish farm near Rattling Beach in Digby County.

The hearing will begin on Monday at the Rodd Grand Yarmouth Convention Centre.

Kelly Cove Salmon, a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture,has had a lease and licence to operate at the site since 2004. Those have been renewed three times since then.

The facility is licensed to produce Atlantic salmon, Atlantic halibut, Atlantic cod, rainbow trout and haddock and uses suspended marine cages.

In October 2016, thecompany applied to the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture to expand the boundaries of its operations to include all of its operations and aquaculture output at the site.

The company is already operating outside its existing lease and licence boundaries, but has not been penalized by the province because of the pending application.

Cooke said Monday that if the application succeeds, there will be no change to the location and equipment of the operation, and there will be no production increases.

Opponents of fish farms have objected to the province's approach, sayingfish farms, like the Rattling Beach facility, should be forced to conform to previously approved boundaries.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceansreviewed the application to determine if deposits such as nutrients, organic material and chemicals and the release of pathogens and sea lice would pose harm to fish and other aquatic species or their habitat. It determined that there were no critical habitats within the proposed lease boundaries.

DFOrecommended that thefacility ensure compliance with DFO'slegislated mandate, and letters of advice and associated documents were provided toKelly Cove Salmon.

According to the report on outcomes of consultations, the Nova Scotia Office of Aboriginal Affairsrecommendedthat "consultation with the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia was not necessary"because "no new equipment, species, harvesting methods, yield or structural change are associated with the proposal."

The application also underwent review by a number of other federal and provincial government departments, none of which haveobjected to the proposed expansion.

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