Province approves sea urchin farm at former Breviro Caviar site

The New Brunswick government has given environmental approval to a sea-urchin farming operation at the site of the failed Breviro Caviar plant in Pennfield.

Quoddy Savour Seafood Ltd. plans to grow green sea urchins in land-based saltwater tanks on the Mealey Road property.

The companypurchased the plant in December 2016 after the collapse of Breviro, which marketed caviar from shortnose sturgeon.

• More than 4,000 farm-grown sturgeon euthanized at Breviro's Pennfield plant
• Breviro Caviar Inc. trying to keep afloat
• Breviro Caviar seeks legal change to sell in the United States

Green sea urchins are normallypicked by hand from the sea floor or collected by draggers. They are prized, especially by buyers in Asia, for their roe.

According to an environmental impact assessment documentfiled by QuoddySavour Seafood, the urchins will becollected at sea andfed in tanks to "enhance the quantity and quality of the produced roe."

Other urchins will be reared onsite from roe.

The document says theindoor tanks at the Pennfield plant will initially be filled with salt water that will be trucked to the site.

Later a salt water well is to be drilled on a company-owned property adjacent to the lower L'Etang Estuary.

The document, prepared by Fundy Engineering, acknowledges a spill of salt water on the site could have along-lasting impact on groundwater but claimed thatis an "extremely remote possibility because of the stringent environmental protection measures used on-site."

The salt water is to be circulated through the sea urchin tanks and then filtered through a pair of effluent ponds before being discharged intothe lower L'Etang Estuary.

The approval will also allow the company to "warehouse" live lobsters at thesite prior to selling them in North American markets.

Bill Robertson, listed asa director and contact person for Quoddy Savour, could not be reached Monday.

Breviro Caviar, an unrelated company, bowed out in 2016 owing a total of $935,000 to ACOA and the provincial government.

The New Brunswick Investment Management Corp, a provincial government agency, was also described by the company as a "major shareholder."

In late May last year, more than 4,000 sturgeon were euthanized at the site after the province stepped in, citing animal welfare concerns.