Tropical storm Irene generates rumours
Anybody vaguely familiar with the behaviour of salmon in an ocean-based net pen knows that when not actively being fed, most strains of farmed salmon congregate near the bottom of the fish pen. A notable exception was the fish coming out of a hatchery in Washington State and used for a period of time in British Columbia. So when the waves created by the irate Irene swept over net pens in Eastern Canada last month, chances are that none of the fish in them got away. This fact didn’t slow down the finger-pointing by some local residents, however. Chronicle Herald reporter Brian Medel reported, among else, that;
Some residents of Long Island on Digby Neck are concerned that farmed salmon may have escaped their pens after tropical storm Irene, threatening wild salmon stocks. But Cooke Aquaculture, operator of two fish farms in St. Marys Bay, say no fish escaped, although some residents aren’t so sure.
Three salmon holding pens seemed to have had part of their upper frames buckled and were seen listing to one side and dipping into the water, said Karen Crocker of St. Marys Bay Coastal Alliance. (The alliance is a local community group opposed to salmon farming in the bay.) The pens were dipping under the surface in the three-metre swells from Irene, said Crocker, who sailed out on her whale-watching boat Monday night for a closer look. "We couldn’t get in too close . . . because there was a lot of floating rope and debris," Crocker said. She wasn’t close enough to see salmon but said they could have been able to escape. "They (Cooke) should have to prove that they didn’t lose fish." She did see thousands of sea birds diving into the cages to feed on salmon (salmon which she earlier stated she couldn’t see- Ed. comment). Four salmon farm pens had lost their top nets that keep birds out, she said.
Nell Halse, Cooke Aquaculture’s vice-president of communications, said no fish are missing."We had lots of advance warning about Irene coming, so our guys did what they could to secure everything. "And as soon as possible after the storm they went out. All of our farms have been inspected," said Halse. "No fish escaped. If they had we would have had to report it within so many hours to the provincial and federal governments," said Halse. It’s a licence condition, she said. "We have divers that check for tears." She said she assumed underwater checks would have been carried out at the Nova Scotia sites. "There were some torn bird nets. They are being repaired and replaced." Some hand railings for the cage-top walkways were also damaged, she said. Vertical handrailing uprights were damaged but that didn’t affect the structural integrity of the cages, said Halse. "We don’t wait for a storm to do regular maintenance checks."
