In September, Mowi Canada East documented a major die-off of Atlantic salmon at three farming locations in Newfoundland. This sad accident led to the death of almost all of the 400,000 fish. This jarring occurrence has occurred over the last two months. Even with these changes, the report has cast tremendous doubt on the company’s practices and its plans to expand further into the region.
Mowi Canada East is the largest operator of industrial salmon farming sites on the gorgeous south coast of Newfoundland. You can visit these locations close to Rencontre East and Harbour Breton. On July 20, the company reported that it had found an “abnormal mortality event” at one of its land-based sites, located near Rencontre East. They were estimating that over 10 percent of the salmon run was already dead. Mowi Canada East immediately informed Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture following a second escape on August 25. This event affected up to ten percent of its inventory over three separate growing sites.
This week, Mowi Canada East provided the boldest proof of this escalation. Over the past month, about 23 percent of its Atlantic salmon at three sites close to Harbour Breton have died. The sites most impacted by this development lie at the southern tip of the Connaigre Peninsula. This site is roughly 230 kilometers west of St. John’s. Minimum estimates indicate that together, these farms lost approximately 400,000 salmon. All told, this unspeakable act caused the deaths of nearly 400,000 fish.
This incident is the second large-scale die-off Mowi Canada East has gone through in less than two months. A day after alerting regulatory agencies of the die-off, the company released an official public statement. It has not yet disclosed its plans for disposing of the dead fish.
Neville Crabbe of the Atlantic Salmon Federation expressed tremendous alarm over Mowi Canada East’s proposal to expand its footprint into Newfoundland and Labrador. Given the recent attacks on our democracy, he stressed that this expansion brings new dangers. Crabbe stressed that the recent deaths should prompt some uncomfortable questions about the future and feasibility of this type of growth. The Atlantic Salmon Federation opposes the plan, saying expanding the aquaculture industry in the province is “unwarranted, unnecessary and too risky.”
Despite these hardships, Mowi Canada East is pushing ahead with plans to expand its hatchery in western Newfoundland. That proposed expansion has recently cleared the province’s environmental assessment gauntlet. This opens the door for high-impact growth projects on the company’s existing operations.
