Wharfside
December 2017
Value-added Processing Plant Opens
In this issue Something To Think About: Confirmation bias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Glad we were Asked, Glad to Help Out. . . . 3 Photography leads Keith Wood to Aquaculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Safety Milestone 1 Year Lost Time Injury Free. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 We Are The Best!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Lucky 13: Hardwicke Achieves ASC Certification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 New Workboat Welcomed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Dining and Dancing for a Good Cause. . . . 5 Salmon Farmers take part in Ag Day 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 100 Mile Diet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Did You Know? Winnipeg has an 80 degree temperature range over 365 days.
Trivia time! What year was Spaceballs released? Answer on Page 4
Comments about this Newsletter? Please email comments, articles and ideas to Ian Roberts, Director of Public Affairs, at ian.roberts@marineharvest.com
Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) has increased its contribution to the domestic economy by opening a secondary processing plant in Surrey, British Columbia. Located in South Surrey, the plant will produce easy-to-prepare meal options and individually-packaged fresh salmon for sale in Western Canada and North West USA. The first fresh product entered the plant on December 1. The plant will ramp up to processing approximately 12,000 tonnes of salmon annually, and add 75 full time jobs to the B.C. workforce. It is located on the existing freight route for Marine Harvest Canada’s salmon, which means no additional cost of transport for
processing before reaching its destination market. “Farm-raised salmon is the number one agricultural export from British Columbia, and Marine Harvest is committed to providing jobs and revenue for the people of this Province,” said Vincent Erenst, Managing Director at MHC. “The new value-added plant will complement our primary processing plants Continued on page 2
Something To Think About: Confirmation bias Ian Roberts, Director of Public Affairs, Marine Harvest Canada
Every now and then I receive an email with a link to a peer-reviewed study about salmon farming and a question along the lines of “What is your response to this study that proves what I think?” This is confirmation bias, selecting science papers that agree with your preconceived ideas. We are all guilty of it. My response could easily be “Well, here’s a study that proves what I think.” However, in the last decade, several thorough science reviews specific to B.C. salmon farming have occurred in attempt to eliminate confirmation bias.
Cohen Commission, 2012 The $35M Cohen Commission reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed hundreds of witnesses to understand impacts to the Fraser River sockeye. The Commission concluded the following (ranked in order) as primarily affecting Fraser sockeye: 1. Ocean conditions inside and outside Georgia Strait; 2. Delayed density
dependent mortality (another way of saying natural “boom and bust” but over a long time scale); 3. Competitive interactions with pink salmon; 4. Marine and freshwater pathogens. Specific to salmon farming the Commission concluded that: “Data presented during this Inquiry did not show that salmon farms were having a significant negative impact on Fraser River sockeye.” (Final Report, Vol 3, page 24).
Senate Inquiry, 2015 The Canadian Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans issued its report called An Ocean of Opportunities: Aquaculture in Canada. The Committee sat for 66 hours, held 34 public hearings, heard the views of 138 witnesses, and received hundreds of written submissions and other documentation. Senators also visited 23 Canadian regions in 6 Provinces. The report concluded that Canadian aquaculture research and development is internationally recognized for its high quality and recommended that aquaculture production should be
doubled within the next 10 years, provided that operators adhere to environmentally-sound practices. You can read the final reports online.
Monterey Bay Review, 2017 Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program published its review of available science on B.C. salmon aquaculture. The report states that while a level of concern may be warranted, “there is currently no evidence that there is any impact from salmon farms to wild salmon.” Seafood Watch ranks farmed Atlantic salmon raised in marine net pens in B.C. to consumers as a “good alternative”. The full report is on seafoodwatch.org (search salmon recommendations). Instead of arguing that “my study is truer than yours” or “my biology degree is better than your PhD”, I point to these reviews. They’ve been led by a judge, the government and a non-government environmental organization and they assess a broad range of studies to eliminate confirmation bias.
Value-added Processing Plant Opens Continued from page 1
in Port Hardy and Klemtu, and like our farming operations, we are confident it will be globally competitive,” Mr Erenst said. 2
Stephen Hall, Processing Director at MHC, added “It is very exciting to start valueadded production in B.C. With this new MarineHarvest.ca
plant we are providing customers with delicious and easy-to-prepare meal options made from high quality and fresh salmon.”
Glad we were Asked, Glad to Help Out Marine Harvest helped the Glad Tidings Church in Alert Bay by buying 60 chairs to replenish its ageing furniture. The church has been relying on an assortment of old tables and chairs for some years and recently began fundraising to buy new ones. Glad Tidings is used by Alert Bay residents for a lot of community meetings and celebrations. Marine Harvest’s Gary Hall (on right) presents the cheque to Pastor Rick Ivens
Photography leads Keith Wood to Aquaculture By Gina Forsyth
Keith, Tia and Stella
Keith Wood, Manager of the Glacial Creek brood stock site, credits his long time love of photography for introducing
him to aquaculture. Born in Ashford, England, Keith moved to the Comox Valley with his parents and younger sister. It was his father’s career as an electrician that brought them to Canada. Following grade 12, Keith took a professional photography program at North Island College. He was working at
Quatsino Fishing Lodge when he decided he wanted to photograph a Kermode bear, and contacted Marine Harvest to offer his services as a photographer.
opportunities offered by the company. “The management courses I have recently taken which have given me an additional skill set,” he explains.
Ian Roberts sent him to Marine Harvest’s Klemtu region on BC’s north coast, where he captured images of the elusive white bear on his first day, while also spending time with local First Nation salmon farmers.
“The site location is really beautiful, but logistics are challenging because we’re one of the most remote of all the company’s marine sites,” says Keith. “We’re on our own.”
Keith fascination with aquaculture had begun, and soon started working as a sea site technician in Campbell River and Klemtu, before moving to Glacial Creek brood stock site, in Jervis Inlet. Three years ago he was promoted to site manager, with a crew of seven to 10 people depending on the time of year. Keith appreciates the advanced education MarineHarvest.ca
Keith and his partner Tia welcomed their first child Stella Hartley Wood on September 15, 2017. They bought property in Powell River last summer and are planning a busy spring of building a pond, gardening and selective logging. Check out Keith’s breathtaking photography of aquaculture and coastal scenery at www.woodworksphoto.com
3
Safety Milestone - 1 Year Lost Time Injury Free By Dean Dobrinsky, Human Resources Director
On November 4, we achieved a significant safety milestone of one year without a lost time incident. This is an achievement that every employee should be very proud of. Over the past years we have built a strong safety culture at Marine Harvest. We work in a very diverse industry, with so many changing variables, and often quite difficult conditions. Despite the challenges, there is no shortage of suggestions on how to perform better, more safely. This positive attitude has helped create a culture where it’s not acceptable for
people to get hurt. And now we see the results of that effort.
allow us to see and fix problems before they hurt people.
While we are known to have the lowest levels of safety incidents in our industry, this year I am most proud of the gains we have made across the company.
These fixes don’t always happen as quickly as we might want, but our results show that they are happening. Ultimately, this result means that every one of us has gotten home to our families after every shift. Nothing is more important.
The activation of the Joint Health & Safety Committee has created a network of people keenly interested in the safety of their coworkers. The achievement of the OSSE Certification shows that we have implemented the right systems and our managers are focused on the key items, and the continued impact of Brainsafe philosophies on our processes
Congratulations!
We Are The Best! Canada150 explores extraordinary culinary richness and celebrates 52 of our Nation’s foods and why “We Are The Best!” A most recent video spotlights Kitasoo/ Xai’xais First Nation growing and processing British Columbia’s most valued agricultural export. MarineHarvest.ca Answer: 1987
4
Train ‘em young: Judah and Shiloh Rogers dropped into Marine Harvest’s fish health lab in Campbell River for Timberline School’s “Take a Teen to Work” day.
Lucky 13: Hardwicke Achieves ASC Certification Hardwicke is the thirteenth Marine Harvest Canada salmon farm to gain certification from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). Marine Harvest has committed to certifying all of its B.C. farms against the ASC standard by 2020. ASC certification is the aquaculture equivalent of the well-known MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification for commercial fisheries. The ASC sets an unprecedented standard for sustainable food production. The ASC Salmon standard was initiated and developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as part of its Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue (SAD). More than 500 individuals from all major salmon farming regions participated in the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue (SAD) to develop the standard.
New Workboat Welcomed
Dayton Kommnick celebrates certification at Hardwicke
They represented farmers, conservationists, NGOs, scientists, seafood buyers, government officials and other stakeholders working in, or affected by salmon farming. The result is a transparent standard that covers a wide range of environmental and social criteria.
MHC’s most recent fleet addition arrived in Campbell River in November. The $1.25 million workboat, called The Blue Adventurer, was built in Nova Scotia and shipped through the Panama Canal to British Columbia. The 62 tonne vessel carries a six tonne crane and it will support all of Marine Harvest’s ocean sites for work such as harvesting, net removal, construction et cetera. It will be operated by four full time crew members. Its inaugural job is sorting brood stock at Althorp.
Dining and Dancing for a Good Cause
Dan, Stacey, Sue and Paul Pattison representing MHC
MarineHarvest.ca
Marine Harvest was the “Gourmet Sponsor” of the Campbell River Hospital Foundation annual dinner dance in November. Fresh farm-raised salmon was cooked by Rose’s Country Catering and served to 375 people. A table of Marine Harvest employees and partners enjoyed the chance to dress up and dance, a great way to relax while raising money for hospital equipment. 5
Salmon Farmers take part in Ag Day 2017 BC Salmon Farmers Association executive director Jeremy Dunn and MHC Public Affairs director Ian Roberts joined other food producers from across the province in Victoria to meet government. November 7 is BC’s Ag Day, which gives a chance for industry leaders to meet Minister for Agriculture Lana Popham and other politicians to talk about BC’s agriculture and seafood sectors.
Kevin Boon, BC Cattlemen’s Association, Jeremy Dunn, Scott Fraser MLA, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Ian Roberts, Glen Lucas, BC Fruit Growers Association.
The day celebrates the success of Buy BC and the employment of 62,900 people in the food and beverage manufacturing, agriculture and seafood sectors.
100 Mile Diet Port Hardy councillor John Tidbury was quite happy to win a case of salmon fillets in a raffle held at a Vancouver conference – especially when they came from his own backyard. The BC Salmon Farmer’s Association ensures the popularity of its booth at the Union of British Columbian Municipalities Conference by offering samples of Hardy Buoys smoked salmon and the chance to win 35 pounds of farm-raised salmon. When John found out he was the lucky winner, it didn’t take long to realise the fish would travel less than one hundred miles from Swanson Island farm where they were grown, to Port Hardy for processing, to the Tidbury family dinner table. Processing Director Stephen Hall presents John Tidbury with his prize.
twitter.com/MHCanada 6
facebook.com/MHCanada
bit.ly/MHCanada MarineHarvest.ca
EQUIPMENT FOR SALE marineharvestusedsales.com