“Bottom line is there’s no work for us, not for the remainder of this year until … maybe next year in August, which is a long time”.
CBC reports that the workers from Barry Group fish plant that processes salmon from Northern Harvest Sea Farms, fear that there is no work until next August after the Mowi-owned Northern Harvest Sea Farms reported a significant salmon die-off in NL, Canada.
Worker Gloria Pierce said: “Bottom line is there’s no work for us, not for the remainder of this year until … maybe next year in August, which is a long time”.
Plant worker Eric Day, who has worked at the site since 1970, told the publication:
“I think this is the worst, no doubt about that. It’s worrisome for the future. I don’t know what kind of future’s facing us here right now,” he said.
Day also told the publication that plant workers counted 385 sea lice on just two fish.
However, CBC did not report that there is an Eric Day who works at Barry Group, Harbour Breton, that is a Union Leader with Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW-Unifor) – who’s President Keith Sullivan said: “the practices of open-net pen farming come with the potential for very serious, far-reaching impacts on the fishing industry in the area”.
Mowi has attributed the deaths to “an environmental event involving prolonged high water temperatures at some sea sites on the south coast of Newfoundland. The high temperatures created low oxygen conditions that resulted in fish mortalities”.
Though no numbers have yet been released.
Northern Harvest Sea Farms Director of Communication Jason Card emailed SalmonBusiness with the following: “Statistics are still being collected as the mortalities continue to be removed. Northern Harvest will not engage in making estimates, and any statements by third parties about the numbers are only conjecture. Northern Harvest does not anticipate employment impacts in 2019. Planning for 2020 is still ongoing”.
