The Atlantic Salmon Federation is calling on the province’s Environment Minister to restart the environmental assessment process for Mowi’s planned salmon aquaculture expansion. Mowi is the parent company of Northern Harvest Sea Farms.

ASF says documents show Mowi is planning to add 2.2-million additional salmon into its existing sea-cages on the south coast.

This means stocking more fish in the same area—even the same cages—affected by the recent mass mortality event. Northern Harvest has said they will replace the cages with newer, safer ones.

The Federation says except for stating the fish would be stocked into existing cage sites, the company did not include any details about the marine aspects of their expansion.

ASF says there are many similarities between the Mowi case and the Grieg case in Placentia Bay—referring to the successful court challenge that led to a full environmental assessment.

The announcement was met with some comments from the public, who were less than pleased. Federal Green Party candidate Greg Malone spoke, slamming government and the industry by saying they don’t care about the environment.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation is calling on Environment Minister @DerrickBragg to restart the environmental assessment process for Mowi’s (Northern Sea Harvest parent company) planned salmon aquaculture expansion. @VOCMNEWS #nlpoli pic.twitter.com/6wIL5LSLbz

— Ben Murphy VOCM (@BenMurphyVOCM) October 17, 2019

The Atlantic Salmon Federation has asked Minister Derrick Bragg to reject the proposal and call for a new plan.

They are asking Bragg and Mowi to “do the right thing” and press reset on the environmental assessment before a court hearing scheduled for November 6.

NAIA Executive Director says ASF Trying to Stall the Project

Executive Director of the province’s Aquaculture Industry Association, Mark Lane says he’s not sure what ASF is looking for.

He says the environmental assessment was conducted, and he suspects they’re trying to stall the project as they did with Grieg.