Tag Archives: Northern Harvest Sea Farms

Death of 2.6 million salmon in Newfoundland reignites debate over fish farming

Fishing captain Gary Snooks pulls his boat alongside a fish cage in Fortune Bay off the southern coast of Newfoundland.  A chunky, pink plume covers the water. Aboard the Sara Ann, sounder equipment measures decaying fish nine fathoms deep – more than 50 feet of rotting salmon. “Everything was just smothered with this fat,” says Snooks, who’s been fishing lobster, herring and scallops in the eastern Gulf of St. Lawrence for 40 years. “There’s a lot of concern among fishermen.” >click to read< 08:20

CEO of company that recorded 2.6 million dead salmon apologizes to N.L. government

The CEO of Mowi, (Alf-Helge Aarskog), has apologized to the provincial fisheries minister and promised to do better, after 2.6 million salmon were killed on Newfoundland’s south coast, followed by criticism that the company should have been more transparent in disclosing information about the incident.  “We did not live up to both your, and our own expectations,” he wrote in a letter to Premier Dwight Ball and Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne. >click to read< 19:17

LETTER: ‘World class’ means something different in Newfoundland and Labrador. Smoke and Mirrors!

Here in Newfoundland and Labrador we routinely hear politicians and private industry speak of the “world class” qualities of whatever they are promoting. Whether it is megaprojects, various standards or qualities of whatever public or private business is involved — or just about anything it seems — our cup runs over with world class items. Here are a few examples: “The Muskrat Falls project is world class”; “The salmon aquaculture industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is world class” and recently, the new rules touted by our provincial government to regulate the aquaculture industry here are described as “surpassing the world as the place of best practise for aquaculture.” From the now six-week unfolding of the massive Fortune Bay farmed salmon die off,,, by David Downton >click to read< 09:33

2.6 million farmed salmon dead on south coast of Newfoundland, company says

A massive salmon die-off on Newfoundland’s south coast has led to the suspension of licences for Northern Harvest Sea Farms in Newfoundland and Labrador. The die-off first occurred on Sept. 3, but information about the incident did not go public until weeks later. No estimate for the amount of dead salmon in the Northern Harvest pens were disclosed until Friday, when the company announced 2.6 million salmon had died. “As a result of the ongoing investigation and evidence of non-compliance,,, >click to read< 14:45

Diver airlifted from Northern Harvest Sea Farms site in Fortune Bay, stop-work order issued

Northern Harvest Sea Farms hired several dive teams to empty its open-net pens, following a massive fish die-off that left thousands of pounds of salmon to rot. In a statement Monday morning, a spokesman for Northern Harvest Sea Farms said the divers are employed by third-party companies, and one of those companies reported an incident requiring occupational health and safety to get involved. The suspension of dive operations is a serious blow to ongoing clean-up efforts, but the company insists its “clean-up activity can continue despite dive activity being temporarily stopped.” >click to read< 08:21

Pink liquid flows in Fortune Bay, Area fishermen want more information on whether cleanup will affect them

A cleanup operation is underway in Fortune Bay, where Northern Harvest Sea Farms is emptying out its salmon pens following a massive fish die-off. The company, owned by aquaculture giant Mowi, has been cleaning out its salmon farming equipment since September.,, The company is using divers and has hired large purse seiner vessels from Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick to clean out their pens. On Wednesday morning, gallons of pink liquid flowed from the side of two large vessels at one cleanup site in Fortune Bay. >click to read< 18:58

Aquaculture conference overshadowed by fish die-off, bickering

An aquaculture conference in St. John’s is being overshadowed by a massive fish die-off on Newfoundland’s south coast, a war of words between industry leaders and the fisheries union,,, Dozens of delegates have gathered at the Delta Hotel this week for the annual Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association’s Cold Harvest 2019 conference. But a company’s attempts to clean up thousands of dead fish in the Coast of Bays-Fortune Bay area has reignited debate over the industry, which has been scrutinized for repeated infectious outbreaks, escapes, an outpouring of government money, and what some say is a threat to wild fish. >click to read< 15:50

New Brunswick officials suspected pesticide use near lobster pens

An email exchange between employees of Northern Harvest Sea Farms and New Brunswick environment officials reveals the tensions at play last summer and fall during sea lice outbreaks in the Bay of Fundy. The documents — obtained by CBC News through a right-to-information request — surround attempts by the salmon aquaculture company to apply pesticides to its salmon cages in Campobello Island’s Head Harbour. Pesticides can be fatal to lobster, and the salmon farm is near lobster-holding facilities maintained by local fishermen. >click to read<10:19

Canadian salmon firm admits using lobster-killing pesticide near Maine border

For the second time in five years, a Canadian salmon aquaculture firm has admitted in a New Brunswick courtroom to illegally using a pesticide known to kill lobsters for treating salmon off an island that abuts the Maine border. According to a CBC report, Northern Harvest Sea Farms admitted Tuesday to knowingly using the pesticide Salmosan 50 WP, without getting prior approval from the province, in an attempt to combat a sea lice outbreak at a salmon farm off Head Harbour on Campobello Island. Campobello Island is connected to the Maine town of Lubec via the Roosevelt International Bridge. >click to read<19:51

Pesticides Contaminate Fish Farms, Lawsuit in Canada moves forward

Northern Harvest Sea Farms, an ocean-based fish farm in New Brunswick, Canada, was scheduled to appear in court yesterday to answer legal charges stemming from the off-label use of an unnamed pesticide added to its operations to combat severe sea lice outbreaks. The company holds nine licenses for farmed Atlantic salmon cages on the Bay of Fundy, as well as for fish farms off the Newfoundland coast. Sea lice outbreaks are a common at over-crowded, ocean-based fish farms because such facilities afford the optimum conditions for rapidly reproducing and spreading lice. In response, some companies have turned to using illegal and off-label pesticide applications to stave off the problem, which causes huge farmed salmon kills.>click to read< 09:37