ST. MARY’S — There were clear signs of victory today in a Newfoundland town’s decades-long fight to have vats of reeking, rotting fish sauce emptied out from a long-abandoned factory on its shoreline. Steve Ryan, mayor of St. Mary’s, N.L., smiled and laughed as the first load of waste was trucked away from the gravel parking lot in front of the dilapidated Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company plant. Ryan, 55, has been involved with his volunteer town council for 30 years, and he told reporters it was rewarding and relieving to see that first truck pull away. Glenn Sharp, owner of Sharp Management, the company overseeing the cleanup, said there are one million litres of liquid to be removed from the site, which will likely take about 200 trucks over four months. The Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company Ltd. building sits on the shoreline of the town of about 300 people, just steps from the ocean. It first opened in 1990, but the owner abandoned it roughly a decade later, amid legal and regulatory troubles. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2026 Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
