Wharfside
March 2014
In this issue Leading the Blue Revolution: Marketing a fantastic protein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Marine Harvest first in BC to grow market sized Atlantic salmon in land based tanks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2nd Annual Employee Recognition Day. . . 3 Facebook Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 From east coast to west, aquaculture lures another water lover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 MHC supports minor hockey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Something BIG this way comes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Slip, Trip, Fall Safety Blitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Aqua-Cultured. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Tickets available for the 15th Annual BC Aquaculture Achievement Awards. . . . . 6
Did you Know? 7.5 million toothpicks can be created from one cord of wood.
Trivia time! What is the most common first name 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
Leading the Blue Revolution: Marketing a fantastic protein What a privilege it is to be a part of the Marine Harvest team that takes pride in our vision of “Leading the Blue Revolution”. This exciting By Ken Taylor, Sales Director, vision motivates Marine Harvest North America me and our sales department to continually strive for improvement in our sales operations through communication, excellent customer relations, and living our corporate values. Passion: We are excited to be part of a sales team that enjoys selling delicious salmon: one of the world’s tastiest and healthiest proteins. The accomplishment and satisfaction we feel from a well-managed day of sales that meets our customers’ needs, while maximizing our price return to our operations, is something we are very passionate about. Change: We are selling into the North American marketplace that can have many influences on supply, demand, and product innovation. It will be important to continually focus on opportunities for growth in existing and new markets, and to look for efficiencies and
improvements. We are very excited to relaunch our premium “Sterling” brand! Trust: We are proud of our great reputation with our customers. Trust has come from years of good reliable communication and following through with our deliverables in a timely matter. We are honoured that our customers depend on us for consistent quality and continuity of supply all 52 weeks of the year. Share: Through our daily interactions with customers, we are able to educate and answer their general farming questions, as well as share with them the trends in our industry. We also work with our wholesale partners to help educate the customer about the great health benefits of our salmon. With our recent certification achievements and future certification goals, we are excited to share information which confirms our focus on sustainable farming and premium product quality. The Marine Harvest sales department is very proud to do our part in “Leading the Blue Revolution”.
Marine Harvest first in BC to grow market sized Atlantic salmon in land based tanks By Jamie Gaskill, Production Director
This year marks Marine Harvest Canada’s tenth anniversary growing market sized Atlantic salmon (>5kg) in tanks on land. From 2004 to 2008 we grew 8kg+ broodstock in a flow-through system at our former Kokish Hatchery at Telegraph Cove and in 2009 we moved to our current facility at Fresh Water Farms (FWF) in Duncan where we grow salmon in a newly built Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS). The use of RAS came naturally to us since we had helped pioneer its development and have been using various generations of RAS technology to grow salmon since 1988. Application of the technology and the technology itself has advanced greatly over the past 26 years and we now rely on RAS for the majority of our smolt production (up to 800 MT / year). Our experience with smolt RAS afforded us a great learning opportunity which made it easy to transition to broodstock culture. The Duncan facility has allowed us to push that concept and perfect the correct use of current velocity, lighting, water chemistry, and stocking density. Total annual production at FWF is 100 MT with stocking density of up to 70kg/ m3 for 4kg fish and 50kg/m3 for salmon at full maturity. Our average live weight last year was 13kg . Typically we reach what would be a normal market size of 5.5kg in 15 months.
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Freshwater Farms, Duncan, British Columbia
Professional salmon growers have several times analyzed the concept of growing even more fish on land for human consumption. However, at each instance we have decided against it due to cost, environmental footprint, and animal welfare concerns. If you began with an excellent and ample well water source that required little addition of dry buffers, had fairly cheap electricity, and could manage to grow your fish at densities ~90kg/m3 (six times greater than densities at sea), you may be able to produce a 5.5 kg salmon for about the same operating cost as you would at sea. The catch is capital cost, space, and ground water consumption. A 1,000 MT land based system requires a capital investment cost of $20,000,000 (~ $20/kg produced) and consumes ~ 1,000,000 litres of freshwater daily. A 3000 MT typical sea cage site which can be built MarineHarvestCanada.com
for ~$5,000,000, requires little space (it is three dimensional), no freshwater, and runs almost entirely on natural tidal power. Growing food fish on land can of course be done but it does become consumptive once you scale beyond a certain size. But why make comparisons in the first place? It’s a waste of time. Professional salmon growers do not think in terms of “either/or” but instead “and”. For 26 years we have used closed system technology as one accelerator of our business and will continue to do so, but so shall we use advancements in sea cage technology. For us, in our business, it is the combination of the two that is most powerful: not one or the other. This balance of land and sea aquaculture technology will undoubtedly change over time; we may produce post-smolts in land Continued on page 3
Continued from page 2
based tanks and complete the rest of the life cycle in sea cages. In this scenario we may be able to manage the required on land investment without breaking the bank, fixing too much technology in time, and without gobbling up too much land and fresh water; while at the same time reducing time and risk in the sea and simultaneously enjoy the passive benefits of tidal power and natural oxygen. There are many of us producing seafood for an ever demanding world, now is no time to get stuck on how we do it, we just have to do the very best with the technology we have. We encourage all those who are responsibly pushing the frontiers of fish culture and invite them to join us in leading the Blue Revolution. (L-R) Cameron Gilmartin, Lance Page and Jordan Smith show off their salmon grown at Freshwater Farms
2nd Annual Employee Recognition Day Our employees make us a successful company. It is time again to honour all staff and celebrate our successes of the 2013 year together. Expect good food, good company, longservice awards, and a new approach to recognizing some of our top employees. We look forward to seeing you all there!
Details Date: Friday, April 4, 2014 Location: Eagles Hall, Campbell River Time: 11:30am – 3:00pm RSVP Deadline: March 26, 2014 RSVP To: Lauren.Dwornik@ marineharvest.com
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Congratulations to Facebook fans Aaron Lee, Michelle Burns and Venkatapavankumar Padavala. They won a 4 gig salmon memory stick in our #RandomQuestionsCoolPrizes quiz. If you want to win cool Marine Harvest prizes, then “LIKE” our Facebook page! 3
From east coast to west, aquaculture lures another water lover “We’re rebuilding Duncan Island from scratch and transitioning from steel to circular cages. There aren’t any crew quarters right now but come May, work will begin. The site will be stocked by late summer,” Jason explained.
At one point in his life, Jason Saunders, site manager of both Bell Island and Duncan Island near Port Hardy, believed his future was headed towards post-secondary education to become a conservation officer. He took a detour, deciding to work first, and since 1997, aquaculture has been his career with nothing but positive results. For the native of Newfoundland’s Little Catalina, “word got around town that aquaculture in BC was worth a try for work so I left one coast for the other and came west to Port Hardy. I applied for site work with Omega (Salmon Group) and also for the processing plant on the same day. I had my choice and went to the sites because I wanted to be on the water,” said Jason.
In fact, two rugged commercial lobster boats on Canada’s east coast are currently being converted to be feed boats for service at Duncan Island. “Four meter waves aren’t unusual for the site and combined with the powerful currents, regular barges are simply unable to safely deliver feed,” said Jason, adding that it’s not unusual for conditions
Jason was introduced to aquaculture in the Quatsino region, where he worked on the grading crew and then transferred to the Port Hardy region’s grading crew. Soon after, he started at the Hardy Bay site, eventually settling at Bell Island in 2003. Two years later he started managing at Bell, after a year managing he moved into managing dual sites and been managing dual sites ever since. 4
Jason credits his reliable and proficient staff in ensuring his management duties are successfully shared between sites. He supervises 8-11 staff, depending on time of year. Along with his two kids, a 10 year old son and a 7 year old daughter, Jason revels in the outdoor life Vancouver Island provides, particularly camping. “Living on the North Island, we don’t have to go very far to find some very good spots,” adding that he loves showing his kids nature up close and personal. Both Jason’s kids are keen hockey players and also participate in judo. As for Jason, he loves how ‘free range’ Port Hardy is – there’s something for everyone in the wide open space. And for Jason, this means hunting, fishing, quadding, baseball, golf and hockey.
Marine Harvest Canada is proud to be a jersey sponsor for kids who play minor hockey in Port Hardy! MarineHarvestCanada.com
Answer: Mohammed
Jason Saunders, Site Manager By Gina Forsyth
Although Bell and Duncan Island are just 20 minutes by boat from Port Hardy and 10 minutes from each other in the Goletas Channel, they experience severe currents and sustained winds, often topping out at 40-50 knots. “You better love the water,” Jason said, because the winds are predominantly south-east in the winter and with the wide open water and big waves, intense conditions are never a surprise.
to be so unsafe that even venturing onto the circles isn’t possible.
Something BIG this way comes British Columbia’s shipbuilders have been busy working on a BIG addition to BC’s maritime family. Exciting details will be released in an upcoming issue of Wharfside! Harvesting Manager, Jason Stalker (left), and Processing Director, Dave Pashley, are thrilled about the upcoming launch of an exciting new addition to Marine Harvest Canada’s aquaculture fleet.
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Aqua-Cultured Marine Harvest staff had fun at the Campbell River Hospital Foundation’s annual trivia night. Over 40 teams of eight people tested their knowledge and raised funds for local hospital equipment. The team’s name was brilliant: “Aqua-Cultured”. However, the brilliance ended at the team’s name. (l-r) Ian, Lauren, Megan, Cecilia, Ben, Mark, Rhonda, and Lori were proud to represent MHC and help raise money for the Campbell River Hospital Foundation.
The always enjoyable BC Aquaculture Don’t forget to submit your Award Tickets available Achievement Awards is Saturday, March Nominations to recognize your peers. 22, 2014, and MHC has reserved tickets It’s easy - you can find the Nomination 10 ANNUAL AQUACULTURE for the 15th Annual for this fun event! Please email Ian at Form online at: http://www. GOLF TOURNAMENT ian.roberts@marineharvest.com to farmfreshsalmon.org/nomination-form. BC Aquaculture confirm your FREE tickets. Nomination deadline is March 7th. Achievement The event is being held at the Eagles The Awards night is hosted by Positive GLACIER GREENS GOLF COURSE Aquaculture Awareness (PAA). To learn Hall in Campbell River and there are SEPTEMBER 11 , 2010 Awards lots of great prizes to win! more about PAA, please visit http:// th
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www.farmfreshsalmon.org/index.php
1:00PM SHOT GUN START 6:30 PM DINNER FORMAT facebook.com/MHCanada twitter.com/MHCanadaTEXAS SCRAMBLE COST: $100.00/PERSON 6
bit.ly/MHCanada
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