Emergency DMR rules protect Cobscook Bay Safeguards aim to prevent spread of salmon virus

EASTPORT – The state is imposing emergency regulations to prevent the spread of a deadly salmon virus from New Brunswick fish farms to salmon farms in Cobscook Bay.

Cobscook Bay was restocked with farmed salmon this spring after the first outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia in Maine led to the slaughter of more than 2 million farmed salmon last fall and early this winter.

Before permitting salmon farmers to restock half the bay, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service supervised a massive effort to disinfect equipment from 21 farm sites.

Now, the state Department of Marine Resources has issued emergency regulations, which take effect Aug. 21 and include additional restrictions on the movement of aquaculture vessels, equipment and net pens from New Brunswick sites where infectious salmon anemia has been confirmed or suspected.

Andrew Fisk, DMR aquaculture coordinator, said Wednesday that there have been no new outbreaks of ISA in Cobscook Bay, but that his department and USDA have become aware of some threats. They include the fact that feed barges have traveled to Maine farms from infected sites in New Brunswick and a recent USDA analysis that detected evidence of the virus that causes ISA below the waterline on vessels for up to three days after the vessel left an infected site.

“The more you look, the more you learn,” Fisk said.

Two of the companies that operate in Cobscook Bay – Stolt Sea Farms Inc. and Heritage Salmon – also have farm sites in New Brunswick, where ISA continues to be a problem.

So far this year, New Brunswick salmon farmers have lost 800,000 fish to the virus or as a result of slaughtering fish that may have been exposed to the virus, according to news reports.

Fisk said DMR had been unaware that vessels were moving from infected New Brunswick sites to fish farms in Cobscook Bay. But the vessel operators weren’t doing anything wrong. The operators had conducted the required biosecurity audits that are part of existing regulations, he said.

Fisk said the new emergency regulations prohibit aquaculture vessels, service equipment or net pens from moving into Cobscook Bay from confirmed or suspected ISA sites without DMR verification of a complete disinfection, including the area below the waterline.

Vessel operators must keep logs of sites they have serviced and the dates of the disinfection. Vessels that are transporting fish that have been harvested because of ISA cannot enter Cobscook Bay without DMR authorization.

DMR will continue to work with Canadian provincial authorities to determine the disease status of the New Brunswick farm sites, Fisk said.

The Canadian government keeps information confidential about specific sites where ISA has been detected.

DMR’s existing regulations impose movement restrictions around Cobscook Bay, including a requirement that all vessels that operate in Maine waters undertake biosecurity audits. But the new regulations include greater safeguards, Fisk said.

Even though the emergency rules take effect Aug. 21, DMR is accepting public comment on them until Sept. 30. At that point, the department intends to adopt them in permanent form.

For information, contact Fisk at 624-6554.