Lobster Deaths Raise Questions

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GRAND MANAN, N.B. — New Brunswick’s aquaculture industry is feeling the heat after illegal pesticide was found on weak, dying lobsters off the Fundy coast late last year.

Environment Canada officials are investigating how Cypermethrin — illegal, toxic to lobsters and known to be used to kill sea lice in European fish farms — found its way to lobsters in the Grand Manan and Seal Cove areas.

According to reports, the public fears the problem may have originated at a salmon farm site, but Pamela Parker, the executive director of the New Brunswick Salmon Growers’ Association, doesn’t necessarily agree. “We only use products authorized by Environment Canada, and we only use them [in] accordance to prescribed method of treatment,” she was quoted as saying by CBC News. “Vets are the only ones who can prescribe these treatments and the fish are under a vet’s care, so we take this very, very seriously.”

Dead lobsters first appeared in Grand Manan’s Seal Cove in November; days later more were found 50 kilometres away, and that was followed by further discoveries in Deer Island’s Fairhaven Harbour.

Two investigations have since been launched by Environment Canada.

 

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