A half-million salmon died in the Bay of Fundy from sea lice outbreak in north Passamaquoddy Bay last summer where Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper Matt Abbott says sea lice problems have occurred in the past and will most likely continue.
“There didn’t really seem to be a way to stop someone from essentially restarting an operation in an area where we had good reason to expect there would be problems, and indeed they had the very problems we could have expected them to have. That was certainly a disappointment,” Abbott told Harry Forestall in a CBC article published on March 20, 2017.
“Even with the tide going up and down significantly twice a day, you still have an area where things tend to deposit – water goes in and out of it rather than flushing it away.”
More than 240, 000 Salmon died from the infestation and another 284,000 were killed to prevent the parasites from killing the rest of the fish and further spreading. The sea lice infestation was discovered following a change of management from the Salmon farms owners, the Grey Group, to Ernst & Young insurance company.
Details about the event were revealed in a series documents written by Ernst & Young receiver George Kinsman filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench in New Brunswick.
Read the full story here.
Watch Matt Abbott’s March 20, 2017 interview with CBC’s Harry Forestall (17:50-20:30).
-30-
For more information on marine conservation, check out these resources:
- Read our full letter addressed to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report on Fisheries Act, here.
- Read the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans full report here: Review of changes made in 2012 to the fisheries act: enhancing the protection of fish and fish habitat and the management of Canadian fisheries.
- Read our March 1st story on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans’ recommendations: Recover fish populations and protect fish habitat, recommends Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.