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Current - Letter #22.December 2010

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The tenth Annual General Meeting was held in the South Haven Community Hall on Thursday, September 30th at 7:00 pm. The meeting was well attended and several important issues concerning the membership were discussed.

The annual general meeting confirmed the following slate of officers for 2011:

Executive:

Chair: Shirley MacDonald - 929-2370

Vice-Chair: Donna Montgomery-Frizzell - 929-2673

Past Chair: Donna Montgomery-Frizzell

Secretary: Barb Tower 929-2037

Treasurer: Daniel MacAulay 295-1547

HARBOUR VOICES

Harbour Voices is available locally at Piper Pewter at Indian Brook, the St. Ann's Capsite at the Gaelic College, and the Bras d'Or Preservation Foundation(Old Post Office - Baddeck) and from any member of the executive. The books are selling for $15.00 (tax incl.) If you would like a copy mailed to you the total cost is $20.00. If you would like to purchase the book as a gift for family or friends, we would be happy to forward it directly to them with a card identifying you as the giver. Sales of the handbook have been very good and will be used to support our monitoring programs. Monitoring and policing the massive operation in the harbour continues to be a priority for our association and to ensure the proponents are abiding by the terms and conditions of the Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP).

MEMBERSHIP

Yearly memberships are due in January.

Membership dues remain at $10.00 per person for a one year membership (January to December) If you have not yet renewed your annual membership, please forward to: The Stewards of St. Ann's Harbour Association, P.O. Box 345 Baddeck, Nova Scotia, B0E 1B0. We would like to remind you that your continued support and your membership renewals go a long way in helping us to monitor this project.

MONITORING PROGRAM

The beach monitoring project continued over the summer of 2010. The 3 beach monitoring locations are: Goose Cove, Englishtown and Jersey Cove. This program provides an important opportunity for members to become involved and will provide crucial information in our ongoing monitoring efforts. If you are interested or can help out please contact one of the association executive.

COMMUNITY LIAISON COMMITTEE

The Community Liaison/Stakeholder Committee met in November, 2010.

Written updates were presented and reviewed by John MacAskill of 5M Aqua and Scott Dockendorff of Bounty Bay. These reports are attached to this newsletter.

At the time of this meeting the DFO sample testing results conducted in 2008 were not yet available. We will continue to pursue this report.

Robin Stuart spoke at length about the "Sustainable Aquaculture" research project in St. Ann's Harbour, but was unable to supply any specific results. The 5M Aqua Farms were the primary sponsor for this project and they had not yet had time to completely review the report. Once the 5M group have reviewed the report Robin will contact us at a later date to arrange a presentation to our association.

Chuck McKenna queried the farm representatives about the possibility of processing St. Ann's mussels within the province. Scott Dockendorff of Bounty Bay indicated that Bounty Bat had acquired a 3.75 acre waterfront property in Englishtown, however, the initial intention is to develop this land as a shore base to support the activities on the Harbour and it is not economically feasible to build a processing plant at this time.

Since this meeting we have learned that 5M Aqua Farm has obtained funding, to conduct a study to determine the economic feasibility of a mussel processing facility. See press release at: http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20101022014 and http://atip.ecbc-secb.gc.ca/projects/e/content/search_results.asp

In response to our repeated requests, Josh Blakeney, a representative from the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture presented a draft of the signage project. This would provide those using the Harbour with a diagram showing the location of the leases and the navigational corridors that can be used to traverse the leases. According to the Environmental Management Plan for the operation of the Bounty Bay and 5M aquaculture farms in St. Ann's, it is the responsibility of the proponents to maintain navigational and local access corridors during site operation and provide site schematic identifying these corridors.

Trudy Spooner, a representative from the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture presented a brief overview of the aquaculture public confidence initiatives conducted by Lura Consulting in the fall of 2009. The full report is not yet available to the public but it is evident to us that the mandate of this report is to make recommendations to government on how to promote and sell the industry.

Written reports from the proponents are attached below.

5M Aqua Farms Update November 4, 2010

It has been business as usual since our last update, 3 1/2 months ago. Much of July and August were spent "double socking" and adding buoys to our lines. Our mussel crop is presently recovering from spawning with meat yields currently in the low 30% range.

In October we "planted" approximately 40,000 socks of mussel spat. The new socks were introduced to Leases 1186 and 1187. Most of that product came from Darrell MacLeod of Cape North Mussels.

Currently we have 5 gentlemen working for us from Englishtown, North River and Baddeck.

5M Aqua Farms Update November 4, 2010.

Robin Stuart recently completed his Sustainable Mussel Farming study for us. Robin has collected much interesting data regarding growth rates, shelf life of product, positive impacts of the farms, polyculture, the threat of invasive species (especially tunicates), the possibility of collecting seed, carrying capacity, etc. He had the assistance of several PhD's from Dalhousie and CBU. We are reviewing his work and will share it with the members of the CLC. We hope his findings and recommendations will be of interest to all and guide us in our efforts to farm in an effective and environmentally responsible manner. We thank Robin for undertaking this endeavour and for his ongoing support for our farm.

Bounty Bay Update, November 4, 2010

Bounty Bay crews spent the summer of 2010 undertaking usual maintenance work. All 2008 mussels socks were "double-socked" - meaning that a large diameter mesh tube is pulled over each sock to prevent product loss as the mussels reach commercial size.

Buoys were added to lines of both 2008 and 2009 socks as the mussels grew heavier throughout the season. Good growth rates have been observed in all areas in the Harbour.

Employees enjoyed a well-deserved break during the month of August; most had worked all winter.

Much of September was spent maintaining empty lines and getting them ready for new socks. About 75,000 2010 socks were introduced to the leases during the month of October. The spat for most of Bounty Bay's socks came from Tatamagouche Bay and were filled at Malagash Harbour. The north shore of Nova Scotia has historically been an excellent source of mussel spat and collector lines in Tatamagouche Bay performed very well.

A few loads of mussels have been harvested already this fall. Meat yields are very high considering the time of year with a 40:60 meat to shell ratio. Bounty Bay's commercial crop is relatively small compared to last year and it is expected that the remaining 200S mussels will be harvested prior to freeze-up.

Tom Lesperance continues to provide onsite direction to a staff of twelve. Aside from harvesting, Tom expects that the regular work on the leases will be wrapped up by November 19.

- As a postscript, Bounty Bay did acquire a waterfront property in Englishtown this summer. Plans for the 3.75-acre lot are still tentative; however, the initial intention is to develop this land as a shore base to support the activities on the Harbour.

Submitted by,

Scott Dockendorff