Wharfside
June 2015
Underwater eyes for salmon farmers
In this issue Underwater eyes for salmon farmers. . . . . . 1 Sold Out! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Freshwater facility benefits from Brandon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Support for the Tsolum River watershed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Butterflies and Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 City’s Best. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 “Tough Mudder” is here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Cooking up support! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 B.C. Shellfish & Seafood Festival. . . . . . . . . . . 6
Did you Know? If humans had the jumping power of a flea, we could jump 90 m long and 49 m high!
Trivia time! What is the most played board game in the world? Answer on Page 4
Comments about this Newsletter? Please email comments, articles and ideas to Ian Roberts, Communications Manager, at ian.roberts@marineharvest.com
In the 1870 science fiction novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, ocean explorer Captain Nemo travels the underwater world in a primitive submarine called the Nautilus. For its time, the Jules Verne book imagined cuttingedge technology to challenge the public consciousness. Almost 150 years later, Marine Harvest salmon farmers are using somewhat similar, yet much more compact underwater vehicles to explore their cages and fish on a regular basis. This remote control technology means less risk to scuba divers and more frequent fish and equipment inspections.
“Our farms are like an iceberg,” explains Gerry Burry, Site Manager at Marine Harvest’s Quatsino operating area in British Columbia. “A person can only see about ten per cent of the farm that is floating on the surface, leaving the rest of the infrastructure underwater and out of sight.” With this in mind, Gerry and colleague Jay Pudota began researching technologies that could help a salmon farmer see his or her entire farm without donning scuba gear. Their search led them to Deep Trekker Inc. Deep Trekker’s mission was a clear match to what Gerry and Jay were looking for: “… to give anyone on the earth an opportunity to explore the depths of our vast oceans…” Continued on page 2
Marsh Bay crew (L-R): Chris Tomasi, Peter Hartman, Tanner Fyfe, Jason Fraser, Jonas Fyfe, Mike Clark
Sold Out! Marine Harvest Canada’s first farm certified to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s (ASC) salmon standard will be “sold out” in June. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Marsh Bay staff
in succeeding to have their farm the first in North America to receive ASC certification. Additional farms are now being audited to the ASC standard.
Continued from page 1, “Underwater eyes for salmon farmers”
Deep Trekker is a Canadian company that provides affordable remotely operated vehicles (ROV) for a variety of exploration and work needs. The ROV is operated by a gaming type controller and is able to access the very bottom of a typical salmon farm. Farmers use the ROV to inspect and monitor many different aspects of fish farming including 2
net integrity, net washing, net anchoring, smolt deliveries, size grading, mortality removal systems, and general fish behaviour. The ability to inspect fish and infrastructure “at will” is very comforting to a salmon farmer. “You can see your fish whenever you want to,” says Gerry. “Plus, every time we can prevent a scuba diver from entering the water we increase safety and save money, it MarineHarvest.ca
doesn’t take long for one single unit to pay for itself.” To see examples of how salmon farmers use a Deep Trekker ROV, check out Marine Harvest Canada’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WnH8Bc2q9h4.
Freshwater facility benefits from Brandon technician and site safety representative has been at the hatchery for five years. As site safety rep, Brandon is responsible for ensuring the monthly safety meetings are held regularly. As well, he makes sure staff wears protective gear whenever required and that eye wash stations are properly maintained. Another important aspect of Brandon’s responsibilities is ensuring that all site operation handbooks are current.
Brandon McColl and Avery By Gina Forsyth
Big Tree Creek hatchery, north of Campbell River, benefits from Brandon McColl’s presence every day. The hatchery
The Carihi graduate began working for Marine Harvest at Dalrymple Hatchery on a temporary basis after receiving a tip that the company was hiring. This part time position led to a transfer to his current location. “Working with the crew I’ve got makes it easy to get up for work,” said Brandon.
The youngest in a family of two kids, Brandon was born in the Fraser Valley area of Metro Vancouver. The family moved to Campbell River when he was less than a year old. Away from work, Brandon enjoys baseball and hockey. “I’ve been playing both since I was six years old,” he said, adding that his parents grew up playing recreational ball. “My dad’s a huge hockey fan too,” said Brandon. It’s going to be a busy year for the McColl family. Brandon, his fiancée Melissa, and their five-year old daughter Avery are expecting a new addition to the family in September, and Brandon and Melissa are making plans to “tie the knot” next summer.
Luke Jodouin overlooks Philips Arm salmon farm as the fog rolls in. (photo by Paul Pattison) MarineHarvest.ca
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Support for the Tsolum River watershed Marine Harvest is pleased to provide annual support to the Tsolum River Restoration Society to help it continue promoting stewardship of the Tsolum River Watershed. Pictured: Curtis Scoville, TRRS Director, received a cheque for $5000 from Clare Backman, MHC’s Public Affairs Director.
Butterflies and Safety
Butterflies and safety—a rather unusual word association you might think. I subscribe to a site called “MakeSafetyFun.com” and the author, Richard Hawk, brought up the “Butterfly Effect” in a recent article. One dictionary reference describes the effect as a “small perturbation (change) in the initial condition of a system resulting in large changes in later conditions”.
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BrainSafe began over three years ago and the wind from that flutter of butterfly wings has resulted in our current
impressive safety culture. As Hawk says in his closing remarks “Your work is like the wind from a butterfly’s wings: Although it may not be visible, it makes a big difference.”
MarineHarvest.ca Answer: Monopoly (is that irony?)
By Joy Stowe, Freshwater Support & BrainSafe Master Facilitator
Consider your work day: you do your pre-use forklift inspection and find a frayed hydraulic line. The line is replaced and equipment failure is avoided or, even more importantly, a fellow employee is prevented the pain of hydraulic oil spraying him. You might never be congratulated for your efforts but doing your 50% in covering off all three parts of the Safety Culture Model in completing that one checklist resulted in another safe work day at Marine Harvest.
City’s Best! After weeks of online and paper votes, Marine Harvest Canada came up tops in the “Best Community Minded Business” (2015) category in the Campbell River Mirror newspaper. To read more about the company’s community support, visit http://www.marineharvest.ca/people/ supporting-the-community/.
Marine Harvest is pleased to sponsor the North Vancouver Island Horse Association this summer. Giddyup!
“Tough Mudder” is here! By Jeremy Hoover, Systems Administrator & Tough Mudder Trainer
Marine Harvest’s inaugural team of “Tough Mudder’s” will be traveling to Whistler, B.C. on June 20th to participate in the annual Tough Mudder event. After six months of highly motivated and truly dedicated training, these Tough Mudders will put their training to the test at the “Toughest Event on the Planet”. A few changes in the Tough Mudder roster with new replacement additions of Rocky Boschman and Riley Paddock replacing Dean Dobrinsky and Stephanie Stuart has now put the Fish Heads and Fish Tails team at full strength. If they survived training, they can survive Tough Mudder (we hope) MarineHarvest.ca
Check back next month of a full-write up of the event. 5
Cooking up support! Bring your appetite and join us at one of our upcoming fundraising salmon BBQs: Charity
Date
Location
Serving Time
Campbell River Twinning Society
6-Jun-15
Campbell River - Spirit Square
11:30 am - 2 pm
Pacifica Ukes
8-Jun-15
Campbell River - Spirit Square
5 pm - 7:30 pm
Campbell River Hospice Society
27-Jun-15
Campbell River - Dick Murphy Park, Tyee Spit
11:30 am - 2 pm
BC Professional FireFighters Burn Fund
1-Jul-15
Campbell River - Robert Ostler Park
11:30 am - 2 pm
B.C. Shellfish & Seafood Festival The 9th annual BC Shellfish & Seafood Festival is the largest festival of its kind in British Columbia! Located in the Comox Valley, you can enjoy 10 days filled with culinary events, shellfish and seafood producer tours, celebrity chef demonstrations, winery dinners that celebrate the bounty of the sea, coupled with aquaculture industry workshops, networking events and tradeshow. The festival takes place during BC Seafood
Month, the perfect time to showcase seafood excellence! - See more at: http://www.discovercomoxvalley.com/ bc-shellfish-seafood-festival/#sthash. XGNLKXQU.dpuf Be sure to check out all the great (and delicious!) events being served up in the Comox Valley from June 12th – 21st.
Sunday, June 14 - Monday, June 15 / BC Seafood Expo & Workshop Series To see more event information, visit http://www.discovercomoxvalley.com/bcshellfish-seafood-festival/.
Friday, June 12 - Fresh Festival at the Marina (limited tickets available FREE to MHC staff)
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Saturday, June 13 - Flying Lobster Extravaganza & Opening Reception
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