{"id":22001,"date":"2026-07-30T12:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22001"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:18:27","slug":"rotten-fish-sauce-that-has-long-stunk-up-a-small-canadian-town-is-finally-being-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22001","title":{"rendered":"Rotten fish sauce that has long stunk up a small Canadian town is finally being removed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/07\/29\/Canada_Abandoned_Fish_Sauce__6173_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 The townspeople of St. Mary\u2019s can breathe a sigh of relief. They are finally getting rid of the foul smell of rotten fish that has for years \u2014 when the wind blows their way \u2014 wafted over their tiny community in Canada\u2019s easternmost province.<\/p>\n<p>And the culprit for the unpleasant odor that has vexed the picturesque town of about 300 people in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/newfoundland-and-labrador\/\">Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>About 110 tanks that were left behind \u2014 each holding 3,000 gallons of fermented fish sauce \u2014 when the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company was abandoned more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The place was left to ruin: windows got broken, the roof blew off, a January storm knocked out a wall. The sauce kept on fermenting as the bacteria did their job \u2014 and the townspeople could smell it.<\/p>\n<p>St. Mary\u2019s volunteer mayor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/steve-ryan\/\">Steve Ryan<\/a>, says it\u2019s hard to describe just how bad the smell was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe worst rotted fish you ever smelled in your lifetime, times 100,\u201d he told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/multimedia\/collection\/rotten-fish-sauce-long-stunk-small-2026-07\/\" target=\"_blank\">PHOTOS: Rotten fish sauce that has long stunk up a small Canadian town is finally being removed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"\/>\n<p>As crews kicked off a major cleanup operation at the dilapidated plant this week, Ryan watched with mixed feelings.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big relief,\u201d he said, describing the town\u2019s lengthy \u201ccrusade\u201d to get the provincial government to fund the cleanup. The federal government has not contributed to the cost, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat kind of makes me a little bit mad,\u201d said Ryan, who had briefly worked at the factory after graduating from high school in 1990. \u201cEvery door we came to was just closed in our face. \u2026 They forgot about us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few months, workers will drain the vats of left-behind fluid and mix it with peat moss, which will absorb the liquid, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Trucks with giant hoses will then suck up the material and transport it to a pit that has been dug out over three weeks and lined with high-density polyethylene used in landfills. At the end, the pit will be covered with topsoil.<\/p>\n<p>Glenn Sharp, owner of Sharp Management, the company overseeing the task, called it a \u201cunique job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a special waste,\u201d he said. \u201cThis does not fall under any of the standard classifications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ryan said the project costs $1.21 million. The community had to take out a hefty loan of 198,000 Canadian dollars or $140,973 it has to contribute, though the town will get the money back at a later date.<\/p>\n<p>He hopes that when it\u2019s all over, the memory of the foul smell will fade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re such a small town and we were left on our own,\u201d he said. \u201cFor so many years nobody had our backs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But we \u201ckept fighting and fighting,\u201d he added, \u201cbecause we knew we were right in what we were fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 The townspeople of St. Mary\u2019s can breathe a sigh of relief. They are finally getting rid of the foul smell of rotten fish that has for years \u2014 when the wind blows their way \u2014 wafted over their tiny community in Canada\u2019s easternmost province. And the culprit for the unpleasant odor&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/07\/29\/Canada_Abandoned_Fish_Sauce__6173_c0-125-3000-1875_s1200x700.jpg?5df86175492ddcdc04d9d2b6261257b2d49617ee","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}