Twin Bays Coalition Spokespeople Syd Dumarsque and Jeff LeBlanc (right) gave a presentation Thursday night to Mahone Bay Town Council. Photo: Evan Taylor
The Twin Bays Coalition has been doing the rounds of municipal council meetings over the past few weeks.
On Thursday morning they spoke in Chester to a crowd of around fifty who were in attendance. At night they made their pitch to Mahone Bay Town Council.
Syd Dumarsque and Jeff Leblanc spoke on behalf of Twin Bays.
The two started by stating that there was more information that demonstrated the dangers of open pen fish farms than could be presented in the ten minutes they were given. You can visit their website to see a more detailed account of their concerns.
Still, they were able to touch on the bullet points. The first of which was poop. They cited information from one study that claimed a facility with ten nets produces the same fecal waste as a city of around 65,000.
Cermaq, the company looking to build open farms in Nova Scotia says they would need ten to fifteen farms in order to hit their production goals.
Another key point of their presentation was the suggestion of alternatives. The group is supportive of aquaculture but only in closed systems, therefore, they gave beaming remarks about companies like Sustainable Blue in Chester who operate a closed system.
Dumarsque said that the potential business is not worth the risk. “We have aquaculture companies here that have attracted some of the top scientists in the world, they could work anywhere but they chose to work here because of our relatively unspoiled environment. If we do this we are putting this all at risk.”
In closing, they requested that council take action and oppose open pen operation in Mahone Bay and make that position clear to the provincial government.
