Cooke Aquaculture is looking to quadruple its operations in Liverpool Bay.
The fish farming giant put forward a formal application for an expansion after months of research and getting public feedback.
The company had been looking at various sites throughout an option to lease process and originally told Region of Queens council they were looking to double capacity at the farm.
But now Cooke has confirmed they are looking at adding two new locations as well as expanding the current site.
Joel Richardson, VP of public relations for Cooke, says Liverpool Bay is currently one of their smaller sites.
“The existing Liverpool site near Coffin’s Island has 14 different sea cages and we would grow that to 20, so we would add six pens there and the additional two new sites would have 20 cages each.”
The additional sites would be located near Fralic’s Cove and Mersey Point.
“There is a combination of things that make the Liverpool Bay area and quite frankly the South Shore area of Nova Scotia overall provides good salmon farming locations.”
Cooke’s plans have been met with much opposition by local residents who argue jobs don’t outweigh the health of Liverpool bay.
Richardson says the expansion would mean about 20 additional positions added to their Nova Scotian workforce but he couldn’t pinpoint how many of those jobs would be based in Queens or just traveling to there for farm maintenance.
The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board will make the final decision on the application.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
