Auditor General's aquaculture recommendations favoured by industry

The aquaculture industry appeared to embrace the provincialAuditor General's recommendations that Nova Scotia beef up its licensing and monitoring activities of fish farming.

Michael Pickup noted in his report released Wednesday that a lack of staff,resources and information ispreventing the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department from properly managing and monitoring the aquaculture industry.

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"The relocation of most of the AquacultureDivision and and resulting loss of staff likely contributed to the backlog and delay in processing aquaculture site renewal applications," it also noted.

That has kept much of the industry from growing for the past two years, the executive director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia said Wednesday.

"Over the past two years, we havebeen on hold as an industry," Tom Smith said.

Better codes of practice

Aquaculture contributes $50-$60 million to the province's economy annually. Smith said that figure could be $300-$400 million in a clear and effective regulatory environment.

"It is our position that the more active discussion about aquaculture will help us grow."

In the meantime, the industry has been developing better codes of practice, he said.

"Codes of practice for better management for responsible sea farming, Those codes of practice deal with everything from fish cage containment to environmental monitoring. They deal with fish health....community engagement processes that we need to improve."

The Ecology Action Centre said the AG's report confirmed what communities have been saying about the way aquaculture operates in the province.

"The big one, on enforcement,for usis theAuditorGeneral found limited enforcement of environmental requirements exactly whatcommunitieshave been saying over time. Environmental monitoring and auditing procedures lack clarity and detail,"saidSusanna Fuller,marineconservationco-ordinatorfor the centre.

Communities frustrated

Gaps in complaint recording andinvestigativeprocesses are also frustrating for communities, she said.

The shocker for her was the department's lack of ability to monitor disease outbreaks in fish farming.

"I was really surprised to read this. No provincial regulatory requirement for disease survelliance?The department maynot know when there has been a disease outbreak and I think that is significant."

Fuller said while there is room for improvement, she isn't sure that is going to happen.

She believes funding and manpower is needed toproperly regulate open-pen fish farming and provideadequate data bases.

"I did notsee in the last provincial budget the real bump up that is probably needed to regulate the open-pen industry."