The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture says they are taking action to help keep the province’s shorelines clean with an increase in enforcement.
In an interview with Acadia News, Kent Smith says four new compliance officers have been hired to help make sure lobster processing facilities are abiding by rules, including not pumping debris into the ocean.
“One of the things that our team is going to be looking for when they do site visits, is making sure that there is the appropriate receptacle to capture bands and tags,” explains Kent.
Kent’s comments come after an emotional video was posted by Scotian Shores founder, Angela Riley, when she found a slew of lobster bands at an outflow pipe in Clark’s Harbour.
Scotian Shores is a volunteer-run organization that dedicates time to cleaning up Nova Scotia’s shorelines.
Smith says he’s reached out to Riley personally, to thank her for her work and that his department is not just sitting by doing nothing.
“I explained to [her], we both want the same thing,” says Smith. “None of us want these bands to coninue to go into the ocean.”
The new compliance unit was formed last August, and three of the four officers have been filled.
“I think that this dedicated compliance until is going to have more time, more resources to be able to visit our plants and processing facilities more frequently,” adds Smith.
He says, there will also be heftier fines when receiving a summary offence ticket. Kent couldn’t say how much the fines will be but thinks in addition to the heightened awareness from Riley, he expects more compliance.
Riley says she knows Smith knows what a shoreline is supposed to look like and believe they are doing what they can.
“But we need more hands-on deck… because this is a BIG PROBLEM,” says Riley in a post on social media.
She calls on the public to put pressure on the facilities doing this and report if you see dumping from outflow pipes.
“Because we hundreds, if not thousands of eyes on the shorelines and they have many less,” explains Riley.
