Supporters said a proposal to expand the Rollo Bay AquaBounty facility would bring innovative jobs to the area, while others shared concerns over effects on groundwater and wild salmon populations during the session at Fortune Community Centre.
The company has proposed to build two 40,000 square foot structures to allow for the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) to be grown in P.E.I.
Dawn and Stephen Carter live next to where the proposed facility would be and are concerned over the effect on groundwater.
“I don’t know if they have the science to base this off of yet and being a fishing community, we need that taken care of,” said Dawn. “People just don’t know enough about it, and the whole GMO salmon issue is so polarizing that a lot of us have concerns.”
The two attended a public meeting last year for a previous environmental impact assessment filed by the company.
They felt their concerns were addressed at that meeting, since the site was originally pitched as a conventional salmon broodstock facility that would see eggs later grown out in Panama.
Dawn said they couldn’t believe it when they found out the company amended its application earlier this month to include growing the salmon in Rollo Bay.
The application states the site would be able to produce 250 metric tons of salmon per year and would be monitored by both the DFO and CFIA.
The meeting also saw a number of supporters.
Laura Braden, a molecular biologist who studies aquatic animal diseases, said she feels it’s a great opportunity for P.E.I.
“Wild stocks are declining and for our population and the world to eat protein we need to farm it,” she said. “It’s my professional opinion that growing Atlantic salmon to market size in less than half the time, using less feed with less of an environmental footprint, is 100 per cent a more sustainable way to grow fish.”
Braden said the salmon are also sterile and would not be able to pass through physical barriers in the facility to get into the wild.
“Eastern P.E.I. has an opportunity to be a world leader,” said Braden, adding that the project would also increase job security, “while also being innovative and thinking outside the box. For Canada’s food province, I think there’s nothing more fitting.”
Although AquaBounty employees were at the meeting and answered public questions, no one would go on the record for a media interview.
Don Jardine of DE Jardine consulting, which worked on the assessment, has recommended that the company be allowed to proceed.
Jardine said the company has put a number of provisions in the design of the building to minimize environmental impact and noted the site would be using a re-circulating aquaculture system.
“They’ll only have to use about 0.3 per cent of their water from the well as makeup water,” said Jardine. “When you think of the amount of water they’d be using and that they’ll be re-using 99.7 per cent of it, that’s pretty impressive.”
Have your say
- The public can provide written comments on the AquaBounty proposal for 10 days following Tuesday’s meeting.
- Comments can be emailed to [email protected] or by mailing Dale Thompson, Environmental Assessment Officer for P.E.I. Department of Communities Land and Environment, P.O. Box 2000, Charlottetown, P.E.I., C1A 7N8
[email protected]
Twitter.com/Mitch_PEI
