N.S. government grant will help keep Atlantic salmon cool in Cheticamp River - Action News
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Nova Scotia

N.S. government grant will help keep Atlantic salmon cool in Cheticamp River

The Cheticamp River Salmon Association is creating deflectors piles of rocks in the river to narrow the channel and create deeper pools of cool water to protect fish from the effects of climate change.

Local group installing piles of rocks to narrow channel and create deeper pools

A man with white hair and glasses gestures with his hand while speaking in front of a window.
Cheticamp River Salmon Association president Rene Aucoin says a grant from the Nova Scotia government will help protect Atlantic salmon from the effects of climate change. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

People who want to protect the Atlantic salmon populations in Cape Breton say a small grant from the Nova Scotia government will have a big impact on their efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change in a local waterway.

The Cheticamp River Salmon Association recently received $75,000 under the Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund to help build deflectors, which are piles of rock that narrow the river channel and make the water deeper.

Association president Rene Aucoin said the river has been getting wider and shallower, and heat from the sun is not good for salmon.

He said more deflectors are needed to help provide cool-water refuges for the fish.

"We put in 76 of those in previous years, but we've put in another four this year," he said Monday. "It's very expensive, because it's machinery made, so a lot of planning went into that and we have to get the proper approvals from Parks Canada. A couple, three or four dayswas $20,000."

'It takes a lot of work'

Aucoin saidAtlantic salmon are struggling in most rivers on the East Coast, but efforts to protect the fish in Cape Breton are paying off in the Cheticamp, Margaree, Middle and North rivers.

"The rivers are doing really well, but I think it takes a lot of work," he said. "If we want to maintain this for generations in the future, we have to work at it now and not wait till we see the problem."

A man with a white shirt stands on the right while on the left, three people listen to a fourth man who is gesturing with his hand and speaking.
Inverness MLA Allan MacMaster, right, listens as Atlantic salmon supporters Rene Aucoin, Erich Muntz, Paul MacNeil and Claude Poirier discuss the state of the fish in Cape Breton rivers. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

Allan MacMaster, theMLA for Inverness and provincial finance minister,announced the grant on behalf of Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman,saying it's important to look after the natural environment.

"The work that the group is doing is to help them keep deep pools ... so when there's hot days, [the salmon] can stay hidden in the deep pools where it's cool, where the climate is better for them," MacMaster said.

The provincial government recently doubled the Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund by adding $15 million.

A new round of funding applications opened up this week under the fund, which is administered by the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities.

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