Fisheries museum ready to start pavilion

The Northumberland Fisheries Museum hopes to begin building its main pavilion later this year, if funding can be lined up for the project.
Museum board vice-president Gary Nowlan says federal money is in place, pending municipal funding.
Nowlan says he has a verbal agreement from the Town of Pictou after having asked for a $15,000 share. He attended Pictou County Municipal Council’s committee-of-the-whole recently to request the same amount.
But the federal Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency needs to see demonstrated community support for the project before it can kick in money.
The museum applied to the provincial economic and rural development department for funding and will reapply in 2013.
Students from the Nova Scotia Community College in Stellarton will do some of the work.
The pavilion will occupy space on the wharf along the shoreline beside the lobster hatchery and inland from the lighthouse.
It’s smaller than the design originally considered before the hatchery was built.
“It’s a more focused and more sustainable facility,” Nowlan said.
The main floor will have a lobster heritage display, a research and study room, a video presentation area, an aquarium and touch tank and a movable display area.
The lobster boat and ice boat in the current museum site will dominate the main floor, and a small sailboat is also being considered. Six rotating display areas are also part of the mix.
A display area for an old bunk house will also be constructed. The upper floor will have a storage area, a multipurpose room and viewing deck on the back.
Light lunches featuring fish chowder will also be available.
Meanwhile, Nowlan hopes the hatchery’s production of tiny lobster released along the Northumberland Strait will increase this year.
“We released 150,000 lobsters in 2011 and hope to release 200,000 this year,” he said.
The hatchlings are allowed to grow to larger size in the hatchery’s tanks before being released in order to improve their chances of survival in the wild.