Synthesis and Analysis of Environmental Performance Data for Salmon Farming Industry in Southwestern New Brunswick

Description

The NB salmon farming industry has been operating in the Bay of Fundy since the late 1970's. A stringent environmental monitoring program was established to quantify the impacts of individual farms on the surrounding environment. This program was developed with the expertise of scientists, and has been revised as newer information becomes available, with the end results that the NB salmon industry is subjected to one of the most rigorous monitoring programs in the global salmon industry.

Since 2003, the salmon farming industry in New Brunswick has been striving to implement an environmental performance based standards (PBS) system for the management and regulation of marine cage-based salmon aquaculture in southwest NB. This program is based on maintenance of environmental quality with operational flexibility, application of a risk-based and science-supported environmental management and regulatory process, multi-jurisdictional inter-government and government-industry cooperation, and public accountability and transparency.

The proposed work will address the needs of the SWNB industry to demonstrate its environmental responsibility to regulators and the public and will help finalize the PBS framework. It will also provide an initial foray into the development of an ongoing regular review of the industries environmental performance and the knowledge gained will be useful in considerations of mitigation and remediation.

Program Name

Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program (ACRDP)

Year(s)

2008 - 2010

Ecoregion(s)

Atlantic: Gulf of Maine, Scotian Shelf

Principal Investigator(s)

Fred Page
Email: Fred.Page@dfo-mpo.gc.ca