Hope in Newfoundland town as government seeks removal of rotting, stinking fish sauce

A long-abandoned fish-sauce plant is shown in St. Mary's, N.L., on Thursday, June 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is looking for someone to clean up 110 vats of rotting fish sauce left behind in a long-abandoned factory in St. Mary’s, N.L.

Steve Ryan, the town’s mayor, says the invitation to tender posted to the provincial procurement website this week has brought hope and relief to the town of about 300 people 95 kilometres southwest of St. John’s. The community has long suffered from the stench that wafts from the building, particularly in the summer, and Ryan has fought for years to get help to clean it up.

“It seems that we’re so long waiting for it, it’s still unreal,” Ryan said in an interview. “It’s hard to put a feeling on it.”

The Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company factory opened in St. Mary’s in 1990, but the owners abandoned it roughly a decade later after a series of legal battles. They left behind 110 vats of fermenting fish sauce, alongside bags of sugar, rusted cans of pineapple and bottles of finished product.

Whoever gets the contract to clean it all up will first have to solidify the liquid, some of which has seeped into pools on the factory floor. The material is not considered hazardous — the province’s call for tenders classified it as “special waste,” saying there are no toxic gases in the plant.

Ryan said he expects the work will take four to six weeks, after which the government will look for someone to tear down the building. Its 1,850 square-metre concrete foundation will be left intact and Ryan hopes another company will move in and build something new.

St. Mary’s is a picturesque coastal town near a popular beach for whale watching, but the stench has prevented residents from opening bed and breakfasts and other tourism operations, Ryan has said.
The town council is made up of volunteers who have spent years appealing to the provincial and federal governments for help with the factory.

The residents’ new-found high spirits come with skepticism after those appeals were ignored for so long, Ryan said.

“This should have been taken care of long ago.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press