The Mayor of Hermitage-Sandyville on the province’s south coast says the last four weeks have been very difficult for the region.

Local workers have been working 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week to clean up the 2.6-million salmon that died in 72 of Northern Harvest’s pens in Fortune Bay this summer.

Mayor Steve Crewe says people in the area feel like their livelihood is under attack.

He says to hear the Sea Shepherd Society announce that its aim is to shut down the aquaculture industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is “very scary” because that’s all the Coast of Bays area has right now.

Crewe says they’re equally concerned about the environment, but if the industry shuts down, they have nothing.