Science Response 2019/029
Review of Grieg NL Seafarms Aquaculture Siting Baseline Assessments for the Red Island Bay Management Area in Placentia Bay
Context
Grieg Seafarms NL (GNL) has applied to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) for three new aquaculture site licences within the Red Island Bay Management Area (BMA) in Placentia Bay, located on the south coast of Newfoundland (Figure 1). As per the Canada-NL Memorandum of Understanding on Aquaculture Development, the NL Department of Fisheries and Land Resources has forwarded these applications to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) for review and advice in relation to DFO’s legislative mandate. These applications are supplemented by information collected by the proponent as required under the Aquaculture Activities Regulations (AAR).
Figure 1: Location of the proposed aquaculture sites within the Red Island Bay Management Area in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland (solid circles). DH-Darby Harbour, RI-Red Island, BI-Butler Island. Open circles represent the locations of proposed aquaculture sites that will be reviewed at a later date. Straight black lines delineate BMAs.
On June 21, 2019, DFO’s Regional Aquaculture Management Office of the Ecosystems Management Branch in the NL Region requested that DFO Science undertake a review of the three site applications within the Red Island BMA. The request was to determine if the predicted benthic effects, as demonstrated by the output of the depositional model used by the Proponent and based on visual benthic observations, are consistent with the scientific knowledge of the potential impact of this operation. These proposed aquaculture sites would be the first to farm Atlantic Salmon in Placentia Bay. The review of eight additional GNL site applications within the three other BMAs (Figure 1) will be completed at a later date.
A draft Aquaculture Siting Framework was recently developed to guide the scientific review of proposals for new or amended marine finfish aquaculture sites in Atlantic Canada. This Framework was first utilized by the NL Region in 2019 to assess 13 proposed Atlantic Salmon aquaculture sites on the south coast of Newfoundland during a Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) NL Regional Peer Review process. The limited timeline for the current Science Response Process prevented the use of the Aquaculture Siting Framework, precluding a comprehensive scientific review.
This Science Response Report results from the Regional Science Response Process of July 17, 2019, on the Review of Grieg NL Seafarms Aquaculture Siting Baseline Assessments for the Red Island Bay Management Area in Placentia Bay.
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