Government is looking into an incident of damage to an aquaculture site in Shelburne Harbour, Shelburne Co., after a major winter storm earlier this month.
The company reported damage to one of its pens to the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture on Wednesday, Feb. 15, in accordance with the province’s aquaculture regulations, and has continued to provide regular updates.
It is believed some of the salmon were released from the damaged pen. The operator has been engaged in harvesting all of the fish at the site and the remainder of the fish from the damaged pen.
“Our new aquaculture regulations require an operator to notify us of a containment breach as soon as they know about it and that is what happened in this case,” said Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell. “Our departmental staff have been in contact with the operator and will continue to monitor the situation to ensure they are taking the appropriate actions to secure their site.”
Conservation officers with the Department of Environment are following up on the situation with the operator.
Information on the province’s aquaculture regulations is available at http://novascotia.ca/fish/aquaculture.
To report a concern about an aquaculture site, contact the Department of Environment at 1-800-565-2224.
Source: Release