Saving Seafood

Canadian authorities evaluate Cermaq’s planned salmon farms in Nova Scotia

February 3, 2020 — Nova Scotia’s fisheries and aquaculture ministry is taking people’s concerns about Cermaq Canada’s plan to establish operations in the province “very seriously”, CBC reported.

Cermaq Canada is looking at spending CAD 500 million ($378m) to create up to 20 open-pen salmon farms and land-based support facilities in Nova Scotia.

Some people who work and live in communities nestled along coastal areas Cermaq is eyeing for development have been speaking out and protesting against the plans.

However, open-pen fish farming is a huge economic driver for communities, bringing a tremendous amount of tax revenue for the province each year, according to Nova Scotia’s aquaculture minister, Keith Colwell.

“Open pen fish-farms already exist in the province, have for decades, and they will in the future,” Colwell told CBC.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Cooke opens new AC Covert seafood distribution centre and retail outlet in Nova Scotia

December 3, 2019 — The following was released by AC Covert:

AC Covert, one of Canada’s largest seafood suppliers, is hosting an open house for the local community on Dec. 4th from 2-6pm at it’s new distribution centre and retail outlet at 390 Higney Avenue, located in the Burnside Business Park, Dartmouth, NS.

Since 1938, AC Covert has been the fishmonger supplier of choice for the finest retailers and food service professionals in Atlantic Canada. AC Covert delivers the freshest responsibly sourced and prepared fish to fine dining restaurants, hotels, gastro pubs, professional caterers and retailers locally and across North America.

AC Covert distributors was purchased by the Cooke family in 2008 and now offers over 400 different fresh and frozen seafood products to customers including smoked salmon, lobster, halibut, scallops and much more. The open house on Dec. 4th will feature seafood product samples, special offers and prizes.

“AC Covert now employs 30 people and Cooke spent $5.2 million constructing this new two-story, 26,000 square foot distribution centre and retail outlet where 6 delivery trucks operate from six days a week,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc. “This expansion is an integral part of our growth plan and we are part way through investing $112 million in Nova Scotia.”

“Nova Scotia is Canada’s number one seafood supplier and we now export to 80 international markets,” said Keith Colwell, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. “We’re home to a diverse range of premium quality seafood and value-added products and it’s wonderful that AC Covert has expanded in our province to distribute products from over 30 Nova Scotia seafood companies.”

“Burnside is the largest industrial park north of Boston and east of Montreal, with almost 2,000 enterprises and approximately 30,000 employees,” said Mayor Mike Savage of Halifax Regional Municipality. “Cooke’s investment in AC Covert shows how our growing community is a beacon for attracting business investment creating local jobs.”

AC Covert is open Monday-Saturday from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm.

Canada’s Nova Scotia province beefs up aquaculture escape rules

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.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News