Federal regulators take aim at proposed shellfish project

摘要

Straighten up and fly right or you could find yourself in violation of Canada's Federal Fisheries Act. That was the essence of a warning from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to west coast shellfish hatchery operator Eric Gant and some of his colleagues over the proposed establishment of a hatchery-based geoduck and sea cucumber aquaculture project. It's a program that Gant says has the potential to earn millions of dollars for the First Nation involved as well as for federal, provincial,regional and local economies.Gant and his colleagues in the aquaculture project ran into trouble with the department last November when they, as partners in Haida Seafood Products Ltd (HSP) in British Columbia's Haida Gwaii group of north-coast islands, wrote a letter to Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.