Bay of Fundy tidal energy battle heads to court Thursday
At issue is impact of turbines on marine life, ecosystem and tidal flows in Minas Passage
The Nova Scotia government and a company attempting to deploy two tidal turbines in the Bay of Fundy have joined forces to fight a move by a fishermen's association to block the venture.
The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen's Association is scheduled to appear Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court to ask for a stay on an approval that will allow Cape Sharp Tidal Ventures to install two 16-metre-wide turbines at the bottom of the Minas Passage. Cape Sharp Tidal is a partnership between Halifax-based Emera, parent company of Nova Scotia Power, and French-owned Open Hydro.
The province and Cape Sharp Tidal want the court to dismiss the application.
Fishermen's claims 'are not true'
At issue is a provincial government permit for an environmental effects monitoring program, the final approval needed to allow the turbines to be lowered to the ocean floor.
"Most of what is said by spokespersons for the fishing interests are not true or not based on the evidence that we have," Daborn told CBC News.
The slow-rotation turbines will not damage marine life populations, the area's ecosystem or impede the dynamics of the water flowing through the Bay of Fundy, Daborn said in a court affadavit: "99.87 per cent of the water flowing through the [Minas] Passage is not going to go through those turbines."
'Paid consultant'
Daborn also disagrees with the fishermen's claims the turbines will threaten larval lobster.
"No one expects it would have any impact on lobster larvae. The only study that has been carried out on lobster larvae that passed through one of these these kind of turbines demonstrated no effect whatsoever."
Colin Sproul, spokesman for the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fisherman's Association, questioned the credibility of those statements.
"He is a paid consultant for the energy industry," Sproul said.
But Daborn, who is an Acadia professor emeritus, said he is not working for the government or Cape Sharp Tidal.
"I occasionally do consulting work. I have an affidavit in there, yes," he acknowledged.
"Nobody has paid me any money for that, yet. I am hoping they will. But it was not a bought opinion. I would not do it if they want a particular answer."
Province dismisses impact concerns
For its part, the province disagrees with the fishermen's claims that the tidal turbines would cause a decline in the commercial fishery across the entire region and a "significant reduction in catches."
"There is no evidence of irreparable harm; and, the balance of convenience does not support imposing a stay considering the significant public interest in implementation of the Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Project," the province said in court documents.
They want a baseline environmental study so the impact of the turbines can be properly assessed afterwards.
"It's our huge concern that if the effects of these two turbines are underestimated, that effect will be multiplied much more were a full-scale installation happens in the Bay of Fundy," Sproul said.
November deployment
Achieving an accurate baseline study would be very difficult, Daborn responded, due to the wide variety of marine life, changing fish populations and impacts of climate change.
He said most of the uncertainty can only be answered by putting the test turbines in the water.
The Nova Scotia government said it recognizes the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has expressed caution about those knowledge gaps, but noted DFO also said a more robust monitoring program set for 2017 will reduce the risk of insufficient data.
Deployment of the turbines is planned for the first week of November during a "neap tide," when the distance between high and low tides is the smallest.