Victoria aquaculture plant gets OK to expand — pending environmental assessment

The Rural Municipality of Victoria's council has approved a rezoning application for Amar Seafood, clearing the way for the aquaculture company to hire more people and expand its wolffish and halibut farm on P.E.I's southern shore.

Councillors approved rezoning for five hectares of land during its meeting Tuesday night.

Originally, the company had asked to expand onto 16 hectares, but scaled back the application after some residents said that big an expansion would increase traffic and block views of the water.

Martin Ruben, the rural municipality's mayor, said Amar Seafoods must conduct an environment impact assessment before a final development permit is issued.

The province must also sign off on the amendments to the municipality's bylaws needed to let the project proceed.

Ruben said balancing the interests of the community with the company's desire to expand and create jobs was a "challenging" process for the council, which was elected in 2022.

"Certainly it was an eye-opening experience for me and all the council members, but at the end of the day, we came to a decision and we're now moving forward with that decision," he said. 

Scott Travers, the CEO of Amar Seafood, said the company plans to build a new 10,000-square-metre plant near the existing building. He said it would be about 10 metres high, which is lower than the bylaw limit.

"That building will house very much the same sort of process we have now in the existing facility," he said. "[It] will be a bunch of large round tanks with water going in, water going out, and growing our wolffish and our halibut."

Amar Seafood P.E.I. bought the former Halibut P.E.I. building back in 2022. The company hatches and grows juvenile wolffish and halibut there, but considers the current facility too small to let the company be financially successful. 

The new facility will allow production to expand from 40 tonnes a year to about 600, Travers said. It will take about three years for the facility to be built to the point that it can get fish to market. 

We want to demonstrate that this can be done effectively and in concert with the community's interest before we ever envision any further development on the site.— Scott Travers

"We want to demonstrate that this can be done effectively and in concert with the community's interest before we ever envision any further development on the site," he said.

Travers said Amar Seafood is the only company in North America to hatch and grow Atlantic wolffish and halibut on land. Wolffish is a protected species that can't be fished in the open seas.

"We're getting phone calls every day from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Toronto — and from the Island as well — for the supply of the product," Travers said.

"So we're anxious to get the critical mass going, get the process going so that we can feed the marketplace and introduce this amazing new product. It's a fantastic piece of protein."

Travers said the new plant is expected to increase full-time equivalent staff from 10 to 32, and give the area a boost in tourism as a "centre of excellence." In the past, he has mentioned adding an interpretive centre with touch tanks to educate people about the aquaculture processes Amar uses. 

"We expect that we'll draw a lot of attention from academia, research and development. I see us being able to put a star on the map for this part of the province, much like what we've done as a province in wind energy, oysters, mussels, lobsters, potatoes, those sort of things."