New Brunswick salmon farms should also be regulated by federal government, politician suggests
Unlike the situation in British Columbia, where the Provincial government has imposed mandatory treatments of farmed salmon for sea lice in order to avoid risk to wild salmon, salmon farmers in New Brunswick sometimes have to use medicines to treat their fish for sea lice infestations that can threaten the well-being of the farmed fish. Sea lice treatments using the popular medicine Slice™ is usually very effective, but in some areas the sea lice has developed a resistance to the active ingredient, Emamectin benzoate. Recently, New Brunswick salmon farmers have received approval for the testing of a different chemical, where deltamethrin, an insecticide in the pyrethroid group is the active ingredient in a product called AlphaMax. The chemical found in the dead lobsters is also in the pyrethroid group, and now a federal politician is pointing fingers, as this report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) explains; Conservative MP Greg Thompson is calling on the federal government to take over the policing of New Brunswick's aquaculture industry. Thompson said the way the aquaculture industry is regulated should change after a dangerous pesticide was found on dead and weak lobsters on the Fundy coast last fall. Thompson, who represents the New Brunswick Southwest riding includes both the traditional Bay of Fundy fishing industry and the growing aquaculture industry, said the same pesticide has killed lobsters in the Bay of Fundy before, and he said a lack of enforcement could be to blame. "What kind of framework do they have to manage this and to monitor it [and] to move forward and to do it in a way that avoids it from happening again and again and again?" Thompson said.The federal MP said Ottawa should consider trying to regulate New Brunswick fish farms, which are now handled by the province, since federal oversight would help protect the region's other fishing industries as well. '"I think the point is we can't afford not to do it. If it requires more investment from the federal government, so be it," Thompson said. "Because at the end of the day, that's what it's about. Once [the fishing industry] is gone, you can't bring it back."New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet defends the province's dual role in policing and promoting New Brunswick's aquaculture industry. He said the province doesn't want to turn its back on the federal government, but he sees no reason why changes need to be made to the industry. "I feel we can manage this file quite well and quite aggressively. We've got to work closely with the federal government."Pesticide found last fallEnvironment Canada officials are still investigating how the pesticide, Cypermethrin, made its way to the lobsters in the Grand Manan and Seal Cove areas. Cypermethrin is illegal to use in Canadian waters and is toxic to lobsters. It has been used to kill sea lice in European fish farms. That's creating concern about its appearance in the Bay of Fundy, considering some of the dead lobsters were found not far from aquaculture sites last fall. Environment Canada officials said on Tuesday that human health was never in danger. Pamela Parker, the executive director of the New Brunswick Salmon Growers Association, said this week that she didn't believe any of her association members were responsible for introducing the pesticide to the area.Dead lobsters first appeared last November in Grand Manan's Seal Cove, and five days later a fisherman 50 kilometres away in Pocologan found more dead lobsters in his traps. Soon after that discovery, another 816 kilograms of weak or dead lobsters were discovered in Deer Island's Fairhaven Harbour. Thompson's idea to have Ottawa take over the policing responsibilities of the aquaculture industry is not without precedent. The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in February 2009 that the federal government, not the province, should regulate fish farms. The court said the aquaculture industry should be treated the same as other fisheries.
