Fundy fishermen pursue FORCE monitoring approval review

 
The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association is seeking the repeal of the approval of monitoring program for the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) from the Nova Scotia supreme court.

The group is asking the court to overturn the decision made by Nova Scotia Department of Environment to approve the proposed monitoring program for FORCE and Cape Sharp Tidal, on the basis that various environmental protection measures were overlooked or ignored, according to The Chronicle Herald.

The approval of the monitoring program was issued in June this year, allowing FORCE to proceed with the initial phase of tidal demonstration project, which involves the deployment two turbines in the Minas Passage for research purposes.

Named in the application filed on July 22, are the Minister of Environment, the Attorney General, FORCE and Cape Sharp Tidal Venture Ltd., The Chronicle Herald reports.

“We have reached a new, dangerous precedent in Canada where the province of Nova Scotia finds itself in a court action where fishermen are on the side of conservation and government is on the side of industry. We’re optimistic we can enter into a meaningful dialogue with Cape Sharp about the economic and environmental concerns that we and a growing number of other stakeholders have,” Colin Sproul, the spokesman for the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association told The Herald.

The parties will appear before court on August 26, 2016, The Herald reports.

As reported earlier, the joint venture created by Emera and OpenHydro, Cape Sharp Tidal had halted the deployment plans of the first OpenHydro turbine to conduct more consultations with the local fishermen on the potential impacts of the turbines on the fish and Bay of Fundy’s ecosystem.

The exact deployment date of the first turbine remains unknown.