Northern Harvest Sea Farms has received a CAD 12,000 (USD 9,147, EUR 8,084) fine for improper use of pesticides in an aquaculture farm near a lobster holding area in Campobello Island’s Head Harbour.
Campobello fishermen, who are members of the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, have called the fine a “slap on the wrist” given that the type of infraction Northern Harvest was charged with carries a potential CAD 50,000 (USD 38,110, EUR 33,685) fine.
The incident occurred in July 2017 when the company applied to use pesticides – specifically Salmosan 50WP – to fight a sea lice outbreak in its salmon cages. While the company has a permit to use pesticides, each use requires pre-approval and is prohibited within one kilometer of an active lobster holding areas.
The company was approved for pesticide use at one site, but used it on both sites in violation of provincial environmental and federal fisheries regulations.
An email exchange between the Northern Harvest employees and the New Brunswick Environment Department made public through a freedom of information request by the CBC shows the tension between company and regulator.
In a series of emails, the Environment Department repeatedly told Northern Harvest, "No application of Salmosan 50WP can be conducted for all marine aquaculture sites located within one kilomet[er] of active lobster holding areas."
On 20 July, 2017 the company gave notice it planned to apply pesticides to one salmon aquaculture site without mentioning plans to use them at its second site in an exclusion zone in Head Harbour. Six days later, the company applied chemicals at both salmon sites. On 27 September, 2017, after repeated requests, the company confirmed that over three days in July it applied 7.5 kilograms of Salmosan 50WP to the salmon site in the exclusion zone.
The emails also revealed that the salmon in the Head Harbour site would be worth CAD 1.5 million (USD 1.14 million, EUR 1.01 million) when they reached market size.
The investigation and prosecution of what turned out to be the illegal application of pesticides resulted from local fishermen’s observations that “there was something going on” at the Northern Harvest cage site.
