While recent aquaculture proposals in Maine have been mired in controversy, a Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary has not received any significant opposition to its plans to build a $72-million land-based hybrid salmon facility in Bayside, New Brunswick, just across the St. Croix River from Calais, over the next three years. Salmon would be raised from the smolt stage for part of the 18- to 24-month grow-out process and then would be transferred by well boat to sea cages to be grown to maturity before being harvested. The facility would produce four million fish a year in two batches for approximately 1,500 metric tonnes.
      Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. has received a Certification of Determination to Proceed from the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government for the construction of the recirculating aquaculture system in the Champlain Industrial Park. The company began planning the high tech project in 2017 and received environmental impact assessment approval earlier this year for ground source wells to supply the facility with water. Associated with the facility would be two water pipeline corridors and a marine loading facility.
      "Hybrid systems, involving a mix of land and marine based fish farming, will continue to be part of our future. We have been operating land based salmon hatcheries and marine farms sustainably for 38 years," says Joel Richardson, vice president of public relations for Cooke. "Innovative scientific technologies bring a new opportunity for greater production in ocean waters by shortening time Atlantic salmon spend in marine cages."
      In March of last year, Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries Minister Margaret Johnson released the New Brunswick Finfish Aquaculture Growth Strategy 2022 2030, which is guiding development in the province's finfish aquaculture sector with a focus on land based production through new technological advancements. Salmon farmers have been moving to land based facilities to help control environmental conditions, reduce disease risks and limit the risk of pollution or escapees. With recirculating aquaculture systems, water in the tanks can be filtered and reused to create a healthy environment for the fish, as waste is filtered out of the system.
      During construction, the three-year project is expected to create more than 340 direct construction jobs and 222 indirect jobs. Once operational, the approximately 100,000-square-foot facility would create approximately a dozen full time jobs.
      The post smolt facility is just one of the investments Cooke is making in Charlotte County. Earlier this year, Cooke's new $21-million freshwater hatchery at Johnson Lake in Pennfield became operational, and it will supply juvenile fish to the Bayside facility. Also, the company recently completed a $50 million expansion at its salmon processing plant in St. George.
      The project team for the new aquaculture facility includes Sorensen Engineering Ltd. of St. Andrews and Sweeney International Marine Corp. of St. Stephen.
     

Benefits of land-based system
      According to Richardson, full-scale land based grow-out facilities are not currently technically or financially viable for large volumes of salmon needed to meet grocery store demand.
      Cooke's goal with the land-based system is to increase the weight of fish from the 150 grams when they are normally released into sea cages to greater than 500 grams.
      Among the benefits of recirculating aquaculture systems are: reduced exposure to severe weather and other challenges in the marine environment; greater control on production and growth and better marine site utilization; and new opportunities for greater production in ocean waters by shortening the time salmon spend in marine cages. Richardson notes that raising salmon in land based facilities does not eliminate the possibility of diseases. "Any land based facility can be affected, no matter how innovative the technology," he says, adding, "All Cooke land based aquaculture facilities are biosecure, fully contained, and have risk mitigation plans in place to manage disease and effluent."
      As for the company's disease management strategies, Richardson says that Cooke Aquaculture is a world leader in integrated pest management and fish health, having partnered with academic marine research institutions and technology partners and investing in eco friendly mechanical warm-water bath sea lice treatments onboard vessels and developing a cleaner fish program using lumpfish, which eat sea lice off salmon. Therapeutants are now seldom used, and Cooke offers certified organic salmon that are raised without antibiotics in the marketplace.
      He also says that the number of escapees from marine farms has decreased significantly over the years, as fish farming equipment, rearing practices and new ocean technologies such as custom designed aquaculture vessels, flexible cage systems and stainless steel core cage netting with a second layer of predator nets to keep seals out have been put into use.
      As for survival rates of salmon in land-based operations versus sea cages, Richardson says that Cooke experiences about 5% to 10% mortality rates at its ocean salmon farms, mostly as a result of severe weather, sea lice or disease. The Bayside facility will be Cooke's first land-based facility, and based on the recirculating water system technology that will be employed the goal is to achieve harvest rates of 90% to 95%.
     

Addressing water and pollution concerns
      The facility will have both freshwater and saltwater wells supplying eight large tanks with brackish water to raise the juvenile salmon. As the fish need saltwater to smoltify before being transferred to the ocean cages, the salinity can be increased through the production cycle as the fish grow in size.
      According to Richardson, there are no concerns about drawdown of the local aquifer by the wells that will be supplying the facility, and he notes that there was a separate environmental impact assessment for the well project. The facility will use approximately 550 imperial gallons per minute (igpm) of water, which will be filtered and reused daily. He says that the facility will not be drawing any surface water from Chamcook Lake and that there will be no noticeable difference in the Chamcook aquifer. According to the environmental assessment, 930,470 igpm of water is available annually in the Chamcook aquifer watershed, and 99.9% of the water is leaving the watershed through drainage courses that are not utilized. All the current users, including the Town of St. Andrews and the Champlain Industrial Park, use only 907 igpm on average annually.
      As for saltwater intake, Richardson points out that the St. Andrews Biological Station's intake is approximately 1,800 igpm and the Huntsman Marine Science Centre operates at around 1,500 igpm. For lobster holding facilities in the county, 500-1,000 igpm of saltwater intake is common.
      As for possible pollution by salmon waste from the facility, Richardson says that nutrient waste will be treated and collected at the facility and disposed of at an outlet that is approved to accept different waste streams. The water discharge must meet provincial regulations, as approved in the environmental impact assessment.
      Cooke has held several community and stakeholder meetings since the project was begun in 2017, and according to the company no concerns were raised either then or during the environmental impact assessment period for the well water or the facility construction. The Town of St. Andrews has also been kept informed about the project by Cooke. The town will receive property tax revenue once the facility is operational. It's expected to generate about $20 million in tax revenue annually, mostly in sales taxes.