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CTV News
10-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Aquaculture waste along Newfoundland coast is not harming fish: federal government
Broken and partially sunken sea cages in Roti Bay, N.L., on June 23, 2025, as shown in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Atlantic Salmon Federation - Jake Dicks(Mandatory Credit) ST. JOHN'S — The federal Fisheries Department says it found no evidence that fish-farming waste along Newfoundland's south coast was harming fish or their habitat. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it reviewed reports that companies were allegedly dumping marine debris in the region. A department spokesperson says officials determined there was no disruption or destruction of habitat, nor were fish dying because of the debris. In an email, the spokesperson says the department takes seriously any complaints of potential risks to fish and their habitat. The Atlantic Salmon Federation published a report earlier this week saying satellite images suggest aquaculture companies are disposing plastic waste in six sites along Newfoundland's southern coast. The provincial aquaculture industry association says companies are allowed to store unused equipment in leased marine areas. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025 The Canadian Press
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aquaculture waste along Newfoundland coast is not harming fish: federal government
ST. JOHN'S — The federal Fisheries Department says it found no evidence that fish-farming waste along Newfoundland's south coast was harming fish or their habitat. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it reviewed reports that companies were allegedly dumping marine debris in the region. A department spokesperson says officials determined there was no disruption or destruction of habitat, nor were fish dying because of the debris. In an email, the spokesperson says the department takes seriously any complaints of potential risks to fish and their habitat. The Atlantic Salmon Federation published a report earlier this week saying satellite images suggest aquaculture companies are disposing plastic waste in six sites along Newfoundland's southern coast. The provincial aquaculture industry association says companies are allowed to store unused equipment in leased marine areas. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025. The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
National Observer
08-07-2025
- General
- National Observer
Newfoundland group alleges fish farms are dumping plastic waste and derelict equipment
On the south coast of Newfoundland near Gaultois is a small cove known as 'The Locker.' The region is sparsely populated — the number of residents in Gaultois has gone down by 80 per cent since the 1990s, following the cod moratorium and ensuing closure of its fish plant. But when the human population plummeted, something else took its place: Atlantic salmon raised in fish farms off the coast. Along with the fish has come litter that one group documented as recently as last month as styrofoam, loose rope, PVC pipe and derelict cages from the aquaculture operations. In December 2024, abandoned aquaculture equipment — including old sea cages, plastic, netting and feed bags — was identified at The Locker by the conservation group, Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), which prompted an order from Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne for owner Cooke Aquaculture to clean it up. According to the CBC, the cleanup was completed in January 2025. On February 1, the ASF chartered a helicopter to fly over The Locker, and Neville Crabbe, vice president of communications and special projects for the group, said 'it was all cleaned up … none of the surface waste was visible.' 'But when we went back on June 23, it was there again, which was sort of mind-boggling,' he said. The visit to The Locker showed that 'significant amounts of salmon farm equipment in very poor condition have been hauled back into the area,' according to the report, as well as 'severely damaged salmon farm rings, loose ropes, and Styrofoam particles floating away from the site.' They also travelled to nearby Roti Bay, which has six active fish farm licences held by Cooke Aquaculture and Ocean Trout Canada, and found 'substantial abandoned equipment and other debris, … including long ropes anchored to the bottom floating across the surface of the water.' Roti Bay had the most obsolete equipment, explained Crabbe, at 132 cages in 2016 and 48 in March 2025. Findings from the site visits built on ASF's documentation of plastic waste from 2024 and were released in tandem with a broader satellite survey of all aquaculture sites in the province, which documented damaged and obsolete equipment from 2011 (when high-resolution satellite imagery became available) and 2025. On Tuesday, those findings were released, which Crabbe says shows six sites with recent or ongoing dumping issues. A NL group has documented styrofoam, loose rope, PVC pipe and derelict cages from aquaculture operations in the province as recently as last month, and says a moratorium should be placed on open net pen salmon farm development in the province. In response to the findings, Keith Sullivan, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, said the ASF is 'knowingly misleading people because they know that equipment recycling has been ongoing for some time, they know that all equipment is housed on licensed lease sites and they know recent images they represent as the Locker is actually a separate nearby licensed site." In response, Crabbe said that the images taken in 2024 and 2025 of The Locker were in slightly different locations, but all in the same overall area, and all within what would be considered The Locker. He said either way, it is garbage and unused equipment that Cooke — which holds all leased sites in The Locker — should be held accountable for. According to Sullivan, much of the unused equipment highlighted by the ASF study connects to historical producers who went bankrupt, some of which 'did not dispose of equipment properly, or equipment was otherwise not removed according to modern practices.' Cleanup of 'legacy abandoned equipment' began in 2016, and 'is close to being completed in line with federal and provincial requirements,' Sullivan said. In May 2025, Mowi Canada East announced it had recycled 260 tonnes of obsolete equipment. Canada's National Observer reached out to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, who did not respond by deadline. As of August 2024, there were 115 active fish farming licenses in Newfoundland and Labrador, though only 19 are stocked with fish –— four with trout, the rest salmon. 'As an industry, they're trying to expand,' Crabbe said.. 'They need to maintain their social license, and they've hauled stuff back into that location,' he said, explaining that they'd gotten tips from people working in the industry. Along with highlighting unused equipment and waste, ASF set out to document the underutilization of existing fish farm sites as the industry eyes expansion. It found 53 of the 106 licensed sites in the province had no farming equipment between 2020 and 2025. Mowi Canada East is proposing to add over two million smolts to its existing salmon farm operations along the south coast of the province, while the Newfoundland government previously set a goal of increasing salmon production to 50,000 megatonnes per year, a significant increase from the most recent Statistics Canada numbers which put production of farmed salmon and trout at about 15,600 in 2023. To Crabbe, the underutilization of sites combined with the presence of garbage and derelict equipment is only the tip of the iceberg, which is why the ASF is calling for a moratorium on salmon farm expansion. Unlike in British Columbia, where open-net pen salmon farms are being phased out by 2029 by the federal government, the Atlantic Coast has no deadline. This contrasting approach to fish farming is due in part to a years-old court case which led to a discrepancy in who calls the shots in the two regions. In British Columbia, the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans has shared jurisdiction and ultimate decision-making power over fish farming, whereas in Atlantic waters, it is solely a provincial responsibility. The plastic pollution 'is the part you see,' Crabbe said. 'There's so much else that's happening: serious disease outbreaks, mass mortality events, interbreeding.'
Hamilton Spectator
08-07-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Salmon group says aquaculture companies stashing garbage along Newfoundland coast
ST. JOHN'S - An eastern Canadian conservation group is calling for a moratorium on aquaculture expansion in Newfoundland and Labrador, alleging fish-farming companies are stashing plastic garbage along the province's remote southern coastline. In a report summary released Tuesday, the Atlantic Salmon Federation said satellite images suggest aquaculture companies appear to have left broken cages, rope and other debris in six sites along Newfoundland's south coast. The New Brunswick-based group is demanding the federal fisheries minister halt aquaculture expansion in the province until the companies get their waste under control, said spokesperson Neville Crabbe. Under the Fisheries Act, the federal government can investigate or prosecute anyone who disrupts or causes harm to fish habitat. 'Fix your problems, utilize your existing sites, optimize what you have,' Crabbe said in an interview. 'The industry is not going anywhere right now in Newfoundland and Labrador, but nor should it go anywhere else.' The federal Fisheries Department said the Newfoundland and Labrador government is in charge of regulating the aquaculture in the province, and it respects that authority. The department 'recognizes the concerns regarding wild and farmed salmon interbreeding in Newfoundland and Labrador, specifically along the south coast of Newfoundland, and remains committed to collaborating with partners to mitigate associated risks to wild Atlantic salmon populations,' said an email from the department Tuesday. Newfoundland's south coast is known for its towering fiords and small communities dotting its shores, some of which are only accessible by boat or plane. The aquaculture industry is a valued source of jobs in the area. The Atlantic Salmon Federation has been monitoring aquaculture waste in the region for more than a year. Crabbe said the federation is not calling for the companies to shut down or cut jobs. In its latest investigation, the federation worked with Planetixx, a U.K.-based climate data and analytics firm. The team used more than 60,000 satellite images of the area, spanning more than a decade, to train an artificial intelligence model to recognize sea cage rings — the frames that support large nets inside which salmon is farmed. The AI model could then identify sites with abnormalities, such as misshapen rings or haphazard arrangements. When the AI identified a site with anomalies, the researchers viewed high-definition images of the area from Maxar Technologies' satellite constellations. Through this process, they identified six sites they allege were dumping grounds for 'broken, degraded salmon farm equipment,' the report said. They found no equipment at any time between March 2020 to May 2025 in half of the 106 licensed sites analyzed, indicating the areas were inactive. For Crabbe, that suggests the companies don't need to expand into other areas. Last year, members of the federation visited a cove known locally as The Locker, near Gaultois, N.L., and captured images of discarded plastic bags, blue barrels, rope, buoys and old sea cages. Crabbe said the province ordered companies operating in the area to clean it up earlier this year, though the provincial Fisheries Department did not respond to a request for information about the order. He flew over the site in a helicopter in February and saw the debris had been cleared. But when he returned last month by boat, it was once again full of trash, he said. A remotely operated vehicle took images of a sea cage and netting sunken beneath the water. 'The buoyant structure appears to be anchored to the sea floor, unable to float up, potentially indicating a deliberate sinking,' the federation's report summary on Tuesday said. They also found garbage at a site in nearby Roti Bay, Crabbe said. 'It's very clear in their licences, and in the regulations governing the industry, that they have to have waste management plans,' he said. 'The discovery of that sunken cage in The Locker, at the very least, should compel authorities to go and survey these areas to see what else is under the water.' In a news release Monday, the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association said the provincial regulator allows companies to store unused equipment, including sea cages, in leased marine areas before they are dismantled and recycled. 'Plastic sea cages may be held at leased sites until vessel and staff resources are available to safely transport them to shore-based yards and recycling facilities,' the release said. Association director Keith Sullivan said fish-farming companies in the area are dealing with significant amounts of equipment left by previous operators, who were governed by different rules. Efforts are ongoing to remove that waste from the water and have it properly recycled, Sullivan said in an interview. Companies operating under current rules must demonstrate to the provincial government that they will have the money to clean up their sites when their leases come to an end, he added. Crabbe disagreed that the waste was simply being stored, and likened it to tossing a coffee cup in a ditch and saying he was storing it there. 'This equipment was not being temporarily stored for removal and proper disposal. Some of it has been there since 2011, and possibly before,' he told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday. Sullivan accused the salmon federation of deliberately misleading the public, and he took issue with Crabbe's coffee cup analogy. 'Actually, it's much more like when you're recycling your containers, putting your containers in the blue bag for recycling pickup,' he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2025. Error! 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National Observer
08-07-2025
- General
- National Observer
Newfoundland group alleges plastic waste dumping and derelict equipment by fish farm industry
On the south coast of Newfoundland near Gaultois is a small cove known as 'The Locker.' The region is sparsely populated — the number of residents in Gaultois has gone down by 80 per cent since the 1990s, following the cod moratorium and ensuing closure of its fish plant. But when the human population plummeted, something else took its place: Atlantic salmon raised in fish farms off the coast. Along with the fish has come litter that one group documented as recently as last month as styrofoam, loose rope, PVC pipe and derelict cages from the aquaculture operations. In December 2024, abandoned aquaculture equipment — including old sea cages, plastic, netting and feed bags — was identified at The Locker by the conservation group, Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), which prompted an order from Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne for owner Cooke Aquaculture to clean it up. According to the CBC, the cleanup was completed in January 2025. On February 1, the ASF chartered a helicopter to fly over The Locker, and Neville Crabbe, vice president of communications and special projects for the group, said 'it was all cleaned up … none of the surface waste was visible.' 'But when we went back on June 23, it was there again, which was sort of mind-boggling,' he said. The visit to The Locker showed that 'significant amounts of salmon farm equipment in very poor condition have been hauled back into the area,' according to the report, as well as 'severely damaged salmon farm rings, loose ropes, and Styrofoam particles floating away from the site.' They also travelled to nearby Roti Bay, which has six active fish farm licences held by Cooke Aquaculture and Ocean Trout Canada, and found 'substantial abandoned equipment and other debris, … including long ropes anchored to the bottom floating across the surface of the water.' Roti Bay had the most obsolete equipment, explained Crabbe, at 132 cages in 2016 and 48 in March 2025. Findings from the site visits built on ASF's documentation of plastic waste from 2024 and were released in tandem with a broader satellite survey of all aquaculture sites in the province, which documented damaged and obsolete equipment from 2011 (when high-resolution satellite imagery became available) and 2025. On Tuesday, those findings were released, which Crabbe says shows six sites with recent or ongoing dumping issues. A NL group has documented styrofoam, loose rope, PVC pipe and derelict cages from aquaculture operations in the province as recently as last month, and says a moratorium should be placed on open net pen salmon farm development in the province. In response to the findings, Keith Sullivan, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, said the ASF is 'knowingly misleading people because they know that equipment recycling has been ongoing for some time, they know that all equipment is housed on licensed lease sites and they know recent images they represent as the Locker is actually a separate nearby licensed site." In response, Crabbe said that the images taken in 2024 and 2025 of The Locker were in slightly different locations, but all in the same overall area, and all within what would be considered The Locker. He said either way, it is garbage and unused equipment that Cooke — which holds all leased sites in The Locker — should be held accountable for. According to Sullivan, much of the unused equipment highlighted by the ASF study connects to historical producers who went bankrupt, some of which 'did not dispose of equipment properly, or equipment was otherwise not removed according to modern practices.' Cleanup of 'legacy abandoned equipment' began in 2016, and 'is close to being completed in line with federal and provincial requirements,' Sullivan said. In May 2025, Mowi Canada East announced it had recycled 260 tonnes of obsolete equipment. Canada's National Observer reached out to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, who did not respond by deadline. As of August 2024, there were 115 active fish farming licenses in Newfoundland and Labrador, though only 19 are stocked with fish –— four with trout, the rest salmon. 'As an industry, they're trying to expand,' Crabbe said.. 'They need to maintain their social license, and they've hauled stuff back into that location,' he said, explaining that they'd gotten tips from people working in the industry. Along with highlighting unused equipment and waste, ASF set out to document the underutilization of existing fish farm sites as the industry eyes expansion. It found 53 of the 106 licensed sites in the province had no farming equipment between 2020 and 2025. Mowi Canada East is proposing to add over two million smolts to its existing salmon farm operations along the south coast of the province, while the Newfoundland government previously set a goal of increasing salmon production to 50,000 megatonnes per year, a significant increase from the most recent Statistics Canada numbers which put production of farmed salmon and trout at about 15,600 in 2023. To Crabbe, the underutilization of sites combined with the presence of garbage and derelict equipment is only the tip of the iceberg, which is why the ASF is calling for a moratorium on salmon farm expansion. Unlike in British Columbia, where open-net pen salmon farms are being phased out by 2029 by the federal government, the Atlantic Coast has no deadline. This contrasting approach to fish farming is due in part to a years-old court case which led to a discrepancy in who calls the shots in the two regions. In British Columbia, the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans has shared jurisdiction and ultimate decision-making power over fish farming, whereas in Atlantic waters, it is solely a provincial responsibility. The plastic pollution 'is the part you see,' Crabbe said. 'There's so much else that's happening: serious disease outbreaks, mass mortality events, interbreeding.'
