Tag Archives: Bay of Fundy
A Happy Ending! Fishermen rescue humpback whale in southwest N.B.
It’s been a long week for a couple of Bay of Fundy fishermen that rescued a humpback whale that got trapped inside their weir nets. “It doesn’t look stressed or anything,” said fisherman Chuck Breen. “It’s being forced-fed right now. The weir is catching fish and it’s happy to eat. But if you do the wrong thing and it does get stressed, what do you do then. We’re in a small boat, it’s a 30 ton animal.” The humpback swam into the weir not far from Black’s Harbour on Monday and the fishermen say they were unable to get any help to free the animal. Ross Hanley owns the weir. He says as soon as he saw the whale he called the Department of Fisheries and whale rescue groups in the area, but to no avail. “They said they put everything away for the winter so they don’t want to help. I don’t know why,” said Hanley. Video, read the story here 07:13
Fishermen looking to derail Bay of Fundy tidal project head to court
An ambitious plan to lower two massive turbines into the Bay of Fundy, where they will be tested against the awesome power of the world’s highest tides, has hit more legal turbulence. A group of Nova Scotia fishermen will seek a court order to suspend the Cape Sharp Tidal project until a judge can review the case early next year. The 175-member Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association confirmed Sept. 27 that it will head to court Oct. 20 to seek a stay of a June decision by Nova Scotia’s environment minister to approve the project’s test phase. “It’s is critically important,” spokesman Colin Sproul said in an interview. “If that turbine goes in the water in the Bay of Fundy (this fall) …. it will never be removed. That’s why it’s so critical for our case for the stay application to pass.” Read the story here 16:32
Nova Scotia fishermen were in court today to stop Bay of Fundy tidal test project
A group representing 175 Nova Scotia fishermen appeared in court Thursday in a bid stop a plan to test giant electric turbines in the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association says the Cape Sharp Tidal project is based on “junk science” and should be put on hold until a year-long study can establish a scientific baseline for the state of the bay. In June, Nova Scotia’s environment minister granted approval for the installation of two, five-storey turbines on the bottom of the bay for tidal power research. The association has filed an application for a judicial review of that decision, saying the minister acted unreasonably and failed to adequately consider evidence that suggests the project requires more study. Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge Denise Boudreau said a two-day hearing on the merits of the application would begin on Feb. 1, 2017. As well, she said a hearing could be held on Oct. 20 if the association decides to file a motion seeking a stay of the minister’s decision. Link 17:02
Gaspereau River fishermen worried the fish may not make it up the river if turbines are in the water
Some fishermen along the Gaspereau River are concerned how tidal turbines could affect a local fishery. There are 14 active square net licences in the Gaspereau and Melanson area issued by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Those fishermen catch Gaspereau, a species of herring, when they swim up the river from the Bay of Fundy in April and May. On Monday night at the Gaspereau Community Hall, people in the area had their chance to speak to FORCE (Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy), the organization behind the tidal turbine project. “We want to have some meaningful dialogue with Cape Sharp and FORCE about this project they’re undertaking,” said Chris Gertridge, with the Gaspereau Fishermen’s Association. “We have a lot of questions as to why we’re never consulted.” Read the rest here 14:24
Nova Scotia scallop fishery to experiment with diver-caught scallops
Diver-caught scallops are a premium item on some Nova Scotia restaurant menus, but until now the shellfish served often came from as far away as Mexico. That’s about to change. Beginning Saturday, a team of commercial divers will be permitted to hand-pick scallops from the floor of the Bay of Fundy, between Digby and Digby Neck. The federal Fisheries and Oceans Department recently approved the commercial project. “These are commercial scuba divers who usually fish for urchins. What they’re basically doing is they are going out on a dive boat to … scallop beds, jump in the water with full scuba gear — includes a dry suit because it is mighty cold down there — and they basically just hand-forage them, one at a time and put them into dive bags,” Justin Cantafio, sustainable fisheries campaigner with the Ecology Action Centre, told CBC’s Information Morning in Halifax. Read the story here 16:57
Floating turbine system to be tested in Bay of Fundy, The Holy Grail
A Dutch firm that calls the Bay of Fundy “the holy grail” aims to exploit the bay’s powerful tidal currents by testing a floating turbine system starting next year. Halifax-based Minas Energy announced Tuesday it was partnering with Dutch firm Tocardo International BV and Ontario-based International Marine Energy Inc. to form the Minas Tidal Limited Partnership. The new partnership plans to test the Dutch company’s technology in the Minas Passage by late 2017, the third distinct approach announced recently to harnessing the bay’s powerful forces. “We feel brave enough to go to the Bay of Fundy,” said Van Breugel. “The Bay of Fundy is the holy grail.” Read the rest here 11:49
“Divide and Conquer” – Bay of Fundy tidal project ‘transparency’ questioned
A group opposing a project to capture power from the world’s highest tides says the company installing the underwater turbines isn’t doing a good job consulting the public. Cape Sharp Tidal Venture has been approved to launch two turbines in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Passage, home to endangered species, such as Atlantic salmon and white shark, and active fisheries. That launch is delayed pending more work on the turbines, which the company says is opportunity to consult with the fishing community, spokeswoman Sarah Dawson said in an email Saturday. But a fishermen’s group says the company won’t hold a public meeting, instead offering to meet one-on-one in a “divide and conquer” tactic. “We feel that the lack of transparency and meaningful inclusion in tidal energy development in Nova Scotia has led to all these problems,” Bay Inshore Fishermen’s Association spokesman Colin Sproul said. “We really would like to engage Cape Sharp Tidal Venture, but we just feel it’s irresponsible to do it in an off-the-record, informal manner like they’ve requested.” Read the rest here 08:03
Bay of Fundy Fishermen in need to pay more attention to the Energy East Pipeline project
Former MP Coline Campbell says people in Nova Scotia need to pay more attention to the Energy East Pipeline project and the risk it poses for the Bay of Fundy and communities all along it. “I’m not against the pipeline but I think there are better places for it go than having all that tanker traffic on the Bay of Fundy,” says Campbell, who was MP for West Nova from 1980 to 1984. “The Bay of Fundy is only 32 miles wide. In my day, every fisheries group in the province would have been at me about this but I’m not hearing anyone talking about it.” The proposed pipeline would bring crude oil from Alberta to the Irving oil refinery in Saint John, N.B. Read the rest here 17:31
Bay of Fundy fishermen’s group mulls legal action to stop tidal turbine project
Nova Scotia Environment Minister Margaret Miller announced approval Monday of a monitoring plan drawn up by the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) and Cape Sharp Tidal Venture. But the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association says little is known about marine life in the area and the instream tidal turbines can’t be made safe for the ecosystem. “I think she based her decision on industry-funded junk science and on political considerations,” says Colin Sproul, a lobster fisherman with the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. “She chose to completely ignore the voice and concerns of every fishing group in Nova Scotia, multiple environmental groups, as well as First Nations.” Video, Read the rest here 15:26
Meanwhile in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia government approves “experimental” turbine deployment
The Nova Scotia government has approved a plan to deploy two experimental tidal turbines in the Minas Passage for research purposes. The government announced the approval of the proposed monitoring program for the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) and Cape Sharp Tidal Venture in a news release on Monday. The turbines, which are each 16 metres in diameter and weigh 1,000 tonnes, were originally scheduled for deployment last year, but were delayed by weather. Fishermen and environmental groups have raised concerns that the giant turbines would have a negative impact on marine life in the Bay of Fundy. Environment Minister Margaret Miller said in a news release that the full environmental impact of the project will not be known until the turbines are in the water. Read the rest here 11:34
Bay of Fundy tidal turbines on hold over environmental concerns
Plans for the installation of a tidal turbine on the bottom of the ocean floor in the Bay of Fundy, N.S., have been put on hold. The company, Cape Sharp Tidal and the provincial government have postponed the project. Fishermen and scientists are concerned about the impact the turbines could have on an important and diverse marine ecosystem. Lobster fisherman Colin Sproul of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association is against installing the tidal turbines. He tells The Current‘s Anna Maria Tremonti why stopping this project is important to him. “The reason for our involvement in this is to preserve our way of life and our culture. The bay has sustained us for 400 years. My family has five generations of involvement in this industry and we will not see it washed it away by corporate efficiency and greed.” Audio report, Listen, read the rest here 08:01
Bay of Fundy Fishermen want more studies before tidal turbines tested
The bounties of the Bay of Fundy have sustained us for over 400 years. The Upper Bay of Fundy is an important spawning, nursery and feeding ground for many fish, mammals, and invertebrate species. They include species-at-risk, such as white shark, striped bass, sturgeon and inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon, among others. The is the most important nursery for lobster larvae in Atlantic Canada and fulfills the same function for sea scallops, cod, haddock, gaspereau and many other commercially valuable species that exit the basin through Minas Passage, populating the entire Gulf of Maine. In 2014, $464 million worth of lobster were taken from the Bay of Fundy on Nova Scotia’s side alone. Landings and value were both up significantly in 2015. The three million pounds of allowable scallops fetched about $50 million. In excess of three-quarters of a billion dollars was extracted from Nova Scotia’s waters last year. And it will happen again this year, next year, and every year — truly a renewable resource. Read the Op-ed here 12:22
The first of two towering tidal power turbines to enter Bay of Fundy next month
The first of two towering turbines designed by Cape Sharp Tidal to harness the immense power of the Bay of Fundy will be installed next month off the coast of Nova Scotia, an company official announced Thursday. Sarah Dawson, the community relations manager for the project, said one of the five-storey high, two-megawatt turbines built in Pictou by Aecon Atlantic Industrial Inc., will be loaded on a barge during the first week of June and travel around the province until it reaches the test site near Parrsboro. That trip will take a couple of weeks. The new turbines are a bigger and more robust version of a turbine tested by OpenHydro and Nova Scotia Power in 2009 that was heavily damaged by the Bay of Fundy’s powerful currents. Read the rest here 18:04
Bay of Fundy fishermen worried about fish stocks being destroyed by tidal turbine generators
Four companies are planning on placing test turbines at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy. FORCE has a facility on land near Parrsboro that manages and monitors four berths for turbines in the Minas Passage. Kevin Gidney of Digby Neck was one of 50 fishermen who attended an information meeting in Annapolis Royal May 15. “Everybody is scared to death,” says Gidney. “The Minas Basin is the number one spawning ground for the Bay of Fundy. After a lobster lays its eggs on bottom, the larva float around on the surface, drifting around the basin with the tide. Are they going to get beat up in the turbines?” “The only thing they (FORCE) are saying to the general public is these fish can avoid, may avoid, or our studies suggest they will avoid the turbines,” said Porter. “In the hundreds of years we’ve been fishing them, there’s never been a fish who learned to avoid a weir, or a gillnet. Read the story here 20:05
Scallop Fishermen haul ice age walrus skull from the Bay of Fundy
Scallop fishermen have dragged more than they bargained for out of the Bay of Fundy near Saint John, pulling up a walrus skull that dates back to the ice age. “It just came up on the dragger and I just thought it was a piece of stick at first,” said Todd Paul, a fisherman from St. Mary’s First Nation. “It’s pretty cool.” The skull was pulled from the waters about 2.5 kilometres off of Cape Spencer. “We were guessing what it was,” he said. “Once we seen a tusk coming out of it, I knew it was like a walrus of some kind.” Read the story here 09:12
Who ya gonna call? Digby DFO cleans up ghost traps from Bay of Fundy
“Our mandate is enforcement and conservation,” said Digby Fisheries officer Corey Webster. “Just like our compliance blitz in St. Mary’s Bay this summer, this is an important job just to make sure everything is cleaned up. And it’s also important for us to be out on the water, just to see what is happening out there.” Fishermen harvest lobster from weighted traps that sit on bottom. They tie a rope to the trap and a buoy keeps that rope floating at the surface to show them where their traps are. Other fishermen, who may see these errant traps, are not allowed however to haul another fisherman’s traps. Read the rest here 15:22
Weir fishermen struggling to catch herring in Bay of Fundy
Some fishermen in the Bay of Fundy are worried the centuries-old herring weir fishery could be coming to an end because of a lack of fish. Dan Cunningham is one of those fishermen. He says over the past six years he has noticed a steady decline in the amount of herring. Last summer, weir fishermen only landed a quarter of what they caught the year before. They say this year is even worse. Read the rest here 08:44
Fishermen clean up ‘ghost gear’ from Bay of Fundy
The
started dragging the waters off the coast of Saint John and Deer Island seven years ago. More than 500 abandoned traps were hauled up from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy in 2008. “There was concern that there was all this gear down there that was fishing and killing lobsters — could entangle whales. The gear is just fishing and fishing and killing indiscriminately,” said Maria Recchia, the association’s executive director. Read the rest here 08:08
A sudden increase in the number White cross jellyfish in Bay of Fundy
There has been a sudden increase in the number of white cross jellyfish in the Bay of Fundy in recent weeks, and a researcher says the scientific world is trying to figure out if it’s part of a natural cycle, or the result global warming or human activity. Nick Record, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, is building a library of jellyfish sightings based on citizen reports. He said reports of white cross jellyfish started coming in about two weeks ago, first in Penobscot Bay in Maine and then in the Bay of Fundy. Read the rest here 08:54
Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association calls for herring catch study
The Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association is calling for a study on declining herring catches in the Bay of Fundy. The request comes after Connors Bros., Limited announced Thursday it will cancel the second shift at its Blacks Harbour plant this season, citing a decline in the weir fishery and herring catch forecasts for 2015. Over the past three decades, annual herring weir catches averaged 20,000 tonnes in the Bay of Fundy, according to the fishermen’s association. In 2013, the latest figures available, the total catch dropped to about 6,000 tonnes. Read the rest here 11:55
Lobster boom in Bay of Fundy puzzles scientists
The Bay of Fundy’s lobster population continues to grow, but experts can’t figure out why. Lobster represents Canada’s most valuable fishery and boats in the Bay of Fundy are bringing in record harvests, year after year. Read the rest here 15:51
Bay of Fundy lobster season gets off to good start
According to a 2013 report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, lobster landings in the Bay of Fundy are Each of the past five lobster fishing seasons has yielded a record catch. Read the rest here 09:22
What This Canadian Village Lacks in Size, it Makes Up With Heart and Lobster
“Whether the boats come in at one in the morning or one in the afternoon, you have to make a schedule to have everything lined up so the fishermen aren’t waiting — they’re your babies and you have to keep them happy,” says MacDonald. Read more here 09:41
Scallop boat brought to safety after losing power on Bay of Fundy
A scallop boat and its crew that were adrift on the Bay of Fundy Saturday were rescued despite high winds and a falling tide. The Tide Nova lost power as it approached Halls Harbour, Kings County. “Time was of the essence,” he said. “If this had happened 20 minutes later, that boat would have been lost.” more@cronicleherald 21:25
Sea Squirt Invasion in Bay of Fundy being investigated
Biologists Benedikte Vercaemer and Dawn Sephton, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Aquatic Invasive Species program, are looking for creatures that can clog a harbour or shut down a business. The scientists have been gathering the invasive species in plastic collector plates that have been hanging under wharves at 18 sites around southwest New Brunswick since the spring. more@cbcnews 06:47
Absence of right whales in Bay of Fundy puzzles scientists
“Probably because there wasn’t very much food for them,” said Brown. “The plankton, and although we don’t sample that ourselves, our colleagues on Grand Manan did and didn’t find very many plankton in the water at all this year.” more@cbcnews 07:31
A tale of Herring at Digby Neck – No weirs on Digby Neck this year ‘No one gives a damn for these herring’
Herring swim in the Bay of Fundy every spring with one thing on their mind –getting to the various spawning grounds and laying their eggs – or fertilizing the eggs. When they leave the spawning grounds, the poke and dawdle and wander, slowly making their way back out to sea. continued@the souwester
Rare orange lobster caught in Bay of Fundy
A rare orange lobster was trapped in the Bay of Fundy on Friday and is now on display in Alma. continued@cbcnews
