Bay of Fundy tidal energy battle heads to court Thursday

The Nova Scotia government and acompany attempting to deploy two tidal turbines in the Bay of Fundyhave joined forces to fighta move by afishermen's association to block the venture.

TheBayofFundyInshore Fishermen's Association is scheduled to appear Thursdayin Nova Scotia Supreme Court to ask for a stay on an approval that will allowCape Sharp Tidal Ventures to install two 16-metre-wide turbines at the bottom of theMinasPassage.Cape Sharp Tidal isa partnership between Halifax-basedEmera, parent company of Nova Scotia Power, and French-owned Open Hydro.

The province and Cape Sharp Tidal want the court to dismiss the application.

Fishermen's claims 'are not true'

At issue is a provincial governmentpermit for an environmental effects monitoring program,the final approval needed to allow the turbines to be lowered to the ocean floor.

Graham Daborn, an Acadia University scientist, will be in court tochallenge the fishermen's claims that the tidal energy program will hurt marine life.

"Most of what is said by spokespersons for the fishing interestsare not true or not based on the evidence that we have," Daborn told CBC News.

Theslow-rotation turbineswill not damagemarine life populations, the area'secosystem or impede thedynamics of thewater flowing through the Bay of Fundy,Dabornsaid in a court affadavit:"99.87 per cent of the water flowing through the [Minas] Passage is not going to go through those turbines."

'Paid consultant'

Dabornalso disagrees with thefishermen's claims the turbines willthreaten larval lobster.

"Noone expects it would have any impact on lobster larvae. The only studythat has been carried out on lobster larvae that passed through one of these these kind of turbinesdemonstratedno effect whatsoever."

Colin Sproul, spokesman for the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fisherman's Association, questionedthecredibility of those statements.

"He is a paid consultantfor the energy industry," Sproulsaid.

• Bay of Fundy tidal project 'transparency' questioned

But Daborn, who isan Acadiaprofessor emeritus,saidhe is not working for the government or Cape Sharp Tidal.

"I occasionally do consulting work. I have an affidavit in there, yes," he acknowledged.

"Nobody haspaid me any money for that, yet. I am hoping they will. But it was not a bought opinion. I would not do it if they want a particular answer."

Province dismisses impact concerns

For its part, the province disagrees with the fishermen's claims thatthe tidal turbines would cause a decline in thecommercial fishery across the entire region anda "significant reduction in catches."

"There is no evidence of irreparable harm; and, the balance of convenience does not support imposing a stay considering the significant public interest in implementation of the Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Project," the province said in court documents.

The fishermen say they aren'topposed to tidal power, only to the current scale of the project, which has greatly expanded since approval was given in 2009.

They want a baseline environmentalstudy so the impact of the turbinescan be properly assessed afterwards.

"It'sour huge concern that if the effects of these two turbines are underestimated, that effect will be multiplied much more were a full-scale installation happens in the Bay of Fundy," Sproul said.

November deployment

Achieving an accurate baseline study would be very difficult, Daborn responded, due tothe wide variety of marine life, changing fish populations and impacts of climate change.

He saidmost of the uncertainty can only be answered by putting the test turbines in the water.

The Nova Scotia government said itrecognizestheDepartment of Fisheries and Oceans has expressed caution about those knowledgegaps, but notedDFO also saida more robust monitoring program set for 2017 will reduce the risk of insufficient data.

Deployment of the turbinesis planned for the first week of Novemberduring a "neap tide,"when the distance between high and low tides is the smallest.