Wharfside March 2016
In this issue The science behind water cleaning. . . . . . . 1 HR coordinator has the human touch. . . . . 3 MOSAIC eating guide features delicious B.C. seafood. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Supporting the Campbell River Salmon Foundation. . . . . . . 5 Marine Harvest Bandits and employees team up to help women. . . . . . . 5 Sea lice outbreak shows no links to salmon farming in BC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Angela Dempsey checks the UVT disinfection system
Last chance to apply for the Salmon BBQ, submit your application before March 4
Did you Know? Fish predate dinosaurs.
Trivia time! What is the term for a cold-blooded animal? 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
The science behind water cleaning It may not be rocket science, but to a layman it’s very NASA-like when one learns of the science involved in cleaning effluent water from Marine Harvest Canada’s (MHC) salmon processing plant in Port Hardy, British Columbia. Located next to the processing plant, the $6.5 million water treatment facility was built in 2011. It has one simple function to perform: filter all the effluent water from the fish processing plant and return it to the bay in Port Hardy, clean. “It’s really simple to describe what it does,” says Angela Dempsey, Waste Water Treatment Operator at MHC. “But it’s a bit more complicated to explain exactly ‘how’ it does it.” Angela has spent the last two of her five year career at MHC immersed in the science that is used to clean water, and now having passed preliminary qualifications as a
Waste Water Treatment Operator, she will soon test for her Level 1 Environmental Operators Certification. The native of Deer Lake, Newfoundland, works alongside Level 1 Environmental Operator Greg Payne. Between them they have the water treatment facility under their management 24/7. While the water treatment facility employs much high-tech equipment that is constantly evolving, Angela says the core process remains the same, and her depth of knowledge helps communicate an understandable description of the process for visitors: 1. Primary screening for solids removal. 2. Mix and equalize the liquid in a large tank to provide consistent untreated effluent to the facility. Continued on page 2
It just blew me away… the technology and science they’re using” Minister Hunter Tootoo tells the Senate of Canada about his visit to Marine Harvest’s Hardwicke salmon farm. (courtesy of Blacklocks Reporter).
The science behind water cleaning Continued from page 1
3. Add ferric sulphate to separate tiny proteins (creating a flocculent) and costic soda for PH neutralization. 4. Add polymers (cationic and anionic) to bind flocculent. 5. Raise the flocculent to the surface by dissolved air flotation and scrape the surface to separate solids from liquid. 6. Fine screening. 2
7. Ultraviolet sterilization. The newest investment at the plant is the Ultra-Low UVT disinfection system (Trojan I-Jet Gen 3). “The company’s investment into the best technology is great to see,” says Angela. “It makes my job exciting and successful.” Marine Harvest’s maintenance team – which includes electricians and millwrights and is MarineHarvest.ca
led by Andy Beech – has been an integral part of ensuring the heavily mechanized facility has had few operational hiccups. With capacity for 114 litres per minute, Angela and Greg remain busy monitoring and tweaking the system to ensure effluent water is exceeding the expectations of Federal regulators and Marine Harvest’s voluntary third-party certifications.
HR coordinator has the human touch
Shylo with her daughters (left to right) Rayne, Jordan and Savannah. By Gina Forsyth
Shylo Loock is half-way through her second year as Marine Harvest’s Human Resources Coordinator, a position she’s excited to call her own. Her responsibilities include screening resumes, interviewing applicants, checking references, preparing contracts and booking training. Shylo is the ‘go to’ person for questions about benefits as well as the payroll system. When that’s all done, she’s a lead organizer for events such as the children’s Breakfast with Santa and the Employee Recognition Awards. “I was born in Fort St. John and came to Campbell River to be closer to family,”
Shylo explained. She graduated from high school in Calgary, Alberta, before she felt a calling to move south of the border. Shylo attended the University of Washington in the US, where she was a gymnast for the Huskies while she studied mass communication and philosophy.
Upon returning to Campbell River, Shylo worked for a short time at Discovery Community College as a career advisor and then for North Island Employment Foundation Society (NIEFS), where she was a case worker, working directly with clients to secure employment.
Shylo started travelling after university and met her South African-born husband, Matie, while in the UK on a working holiday. The couple lived for some years in South Africa before deciding to move to back to Canada with their children.
Making the transition to Marine Harvest was an exciting move for Shylo. “I love to see new things and face new challenges.”
“We moved to Campbell River because we wanted family around for the kids,” said Shylo. “And we started from scratch in Canada; we arrived (from South Africa) with eight suitcases.” MarineHarvest.ca
Shylo and Matie have three girls who range in age from seven to eleven. They play golf as a family and one of her daughters has followed her footsteps as a successful gymnast. “Family is very important to me,” Shylo said, and this is evident from the compassion and understanding she deploys in her work. 3
MOSAIC eating guide features delicious B.C. seafood
Siddharth Choudhary’s Sesame Seared Salmon with Coconut Sauce, one of the delicious salmon recipes in A Mosaic of Flavours
An organization that provides settlement and integration services for immigrants (MOSAIC) has produced a healthy eating guide for new Canadians including several recipes with fresh salmon.
diet since arriving in Canada, MOSAIC saw a need to develop a resource for new Canadians that focuses on heart-healthy eating to help them transition into eating local products from B.C.
With poll results revealing that 68% of immigrants have made changes to their
Partnering with local chefs (many of whom are immigrants themselves), as well as the
The booklet, along with additional recipes and chef bios, is available at www.mosaicbc. com/healthyeating. Think heart smart and try out one of the recipes!
MarineHarvest.ca Answer: Poikilotherm
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BC Salmon Farmers Association, MOSAIC released the free booklet last month.
Supporting the Campbell River Salmon Foundation Marine Harvest Canada will present the Campbell River Salmon Foundation (CRSF) with a donation of $10,000 at its annual fundraising dinner on March 12, bringing to $82,000 the total amount the company has donated to the CRSF.
CRSF’s Dale Blackburn (far-left) and Martin Buchanan (far-right) take the donation from MHC’s Ian Roberts at the Campbell River Mainstem Chinook Enhancement project.
CRSF President Martin Buchanan said it was vital to have consistent support from long term partners. “The CRSF appreciates the support Marine Harvest has provided since our inception 9 years ago. Our partnership with Marine Harvest has helped fund ongoing important salmon conservation initiatives like the Campbell River Mainstem Chinook Enhancement project which is working to rebuild natural spawning Chinook in the Campbell.”
Marine Harvest Bandits and employees team up to help women
The players for the Marine Harvest Bandits Soccer club teamed up with employees to donate basic feminine hygiene supplies to women in need in Campbell River. The Campbell River Women’s Resource Center offers a wide range of services to impoverished women living in Campbell River and the surrounding northern Vancouver Island communities.
Marine Harvest Bandits soccer team kick off the collection drive. MarineHarvest.ca
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This $1.4 million feed and accommodation float house is being built in Campbell River by Cory Handyside’s Pacific Float Construction. The float house—the largest ever built by Marine Harvest Canada—will be finished next month and is destined for the company’s farming operations near Klemtu, BC.
Sea lice outbreak shows no links to salmon farming in BC Last year, researchers noticed a spike in fish lice abundance along British Columbia’s coast. The Vancouver Sun recently reported on the leading reasons for the occurrence, and how the outbreak does not appear to be linked to salmon farming: “Many of the most intense infestations were found in areas that had no active salmon farms or that had never been used
for salmon aquaculture, according to data in three technical reports on Broughton Archipelago, Quatsino Sound and Queen Charlotte Strait,” The Sun’s Randy Shore reported. “A survey of wild salmon harvested from 22 locations in Broughton Archipelago found that 65 per cent of all sea lice counted came from a single location not adjacent to any
twitter.com/MHCanada
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facebook.com/MHCanada
MarineHarvest.ca
salmon farm. A second report… found concentrations of sea lice were five times higher in the Goletas Channel — away from active aquaculture sites — than in the Queen Charlotte Strait, adjacent to fish farms.” Read the full story at vancouversun.com
bit.ly/MHCanada