Aquaculture Regulatory Review Participation Support

The Panel is inviting applications from community-based groups in Nova Scotia for Aquaculture Regulatory Review Participation Support. Community groups and not for profit organizations are encouraged to apply.

Small awards will be made, at the discretion of the Panel, for proposals in the following category:

• Community Dialogue: initiatives to allow a group interested in the process to get organized and to formulate a position on the Draft Framework (maximum award $500).

Please fill in the shaded areas on the attached application and submit to:

mdoelle@aquaculturereview.ca or blahey@aquaculturereview.ca

Deadline for submitting applications: July 31, 2014. Funding is limited. You are encouraged to apply early.

Deadline for written summaries: August 31, 2014. If your application is successful, a written submission summarizing your group’s response to the draft report must be submitted to the Panel by this deadline.

Note: The Community Research funding window has closed. However, 3 projects were approved for funding. They are as follows:

1) Mayday- Jordan Bay/ Shelburne County ($728.00)

We have established a monitoring program for Jordan Bay to examine the potential far-field dispersion and deposition, if any, of copper, zinc and organic matter from the fish farms in Jordan Bay. We have selected 8 sites. We sampled these sites in July 2013 with the support of a grant from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the assistance of local fisherman and scientists. The results of our 2013 sampling will serve as baseline data. We wish to re-sample in July 2014 and request funding support from the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Regulatory Review Community Research fund to complete a second year of sampling.

2) St. Mary’s Bay Coastal Alliance Society ($1,000.00)

The study would identify steps to be taken, and employ techniques to deter gulls from gathering at recreational freshwater swimming areas located near open net pen fish farms. Specifically we would be testing the effectiveness of some commercially available gull deterrent/scare devices for this problem. It has been noted in researching these products that the approach of using both audio/sonic and visual devices in combination are the most effective.

3) Port Mouton Community Research Project ($1,000.00)

Friends of Port Mouton Bay have initiated three new areas of research related to interactions with finfish aquaculture – monitoring of eelgrass beds, analysis of the sea surface microlayer for copper contamination and lobster catch surveys related to fish farm activity.