August 20, 2019 — The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is moving forward with aquaculture management regulations intended to make it more difficult for fish to escape from net pens and easier to trace escaped fish to their original farms later, bringing the new rules into effect last week, the CBC reports.
The news service quotes Keith Colwell, Nova Scotia’s minister of fisheries and aquaculture, as saying that the changes approved by his cabinet follow an earlier report by a committee looking at the issue of fish containment.
The tracking options including testing DNA or tagging fish, while other changes include rules on making sure fish pens are strong enough to withstand bad weather, requiring operators have farm management plans and creating separate ocean bottom assessment requirements for shellfish-based aquaculture projects.