Seacow Pond harbour getting almost $2M in upgrades

The wharf and breakwaters at Seacow Pond are getting $1.89 million in renovations from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Work on the wharf started in December. The project includes replacing portions of the original wharf, as well as reinforcing the breakwaters with rocktrucked in from New Brunswick.

"The harbour, when this is done, is going to be in really great shape," said Francis Morrissey, president of the Seacow Pond Harbour Authority.

"The boats that are fishing there, they won't have to worry about a place to use to fish from, or to enter the harbour, or anything like that for the rest of their livelihood."

Morrissey said the work will make the harbour better-equipped to handle storms. This comes after a portion of one of the breakwaters sustained damage when Dorian hit.

"We hadprobably a 25-foot section of the south breakwater that blew apart ... the storm surge busted it open," he said.

"There was a 20-foot opening that went right through from the channel right out to the open sea."

Portions of the wharf have been rebuilt over the past 12 years, Morrissey said, and this project will replace the last portion of the original wharf, constructed in 1965.

Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the breakwater is scheduled to be completeby the end of April at a total cost of $1.05 million.

Work on the main wharf, which includes installation of a new electrical system and paving, will be complete by July with a total cost of $840,000.

More from CBC P.E.I.