Sea Change - English

sea change, se chänj, n.

NOVEMBER

P U B L I S H E D

1 : A change wrought by the sea 2 : A marked transformation to something richer or finer

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P E O P L E

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S E A

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The president’s perspective

Sea Change pitches in!

Talk’s OK. But results are even better President Stove-Lorentzen cites concrete examples of recent company successes “In the first two issues,” notes James StoveLorentzen, “I stressed three needs: ● to reduce costs (do more with less); ● to counter negative publicity about the Even though SSF leads the world in bringing new species into aquaculture, salmon remains its core business.

Egg-to-plate production of salmon can take years, including • 1-1.5 years from the fertilized eggs to the time the smolts are placed into sea cages, • 2.5 years until those smolt are mature fish of breeding age, • Up to 4 years until their offspring go to sea.

In this issue we’re launching a series detailing all the steps from fertilized egg to the customer’s plate:

industry; and to improve communications, both between departments and between regions.

“Well, actions speak louder than words. So in this issue we showcase achievements in meeting those goals.” ●

East Coast looks for a creative way to keep costs down New stricter environmental regulations on Canada’s east coast required SSF’s St. George plant to re-think how it handles its waste water continued on page 2

The Sea Change you are looking at online or holding in your hands looks a little different.

Reflecting today’s challenging economic climate for the industry this issue of Sea Change is distributed solely as a downloadable PDF. Individual locations are asked to help out by printing copies for distribution.

A different look but the same goal: To provide the information you need about your company and your industry.

IN THIS ISSUE

Our new egg-to-plate series

First steps: broodstock to eggs to smolt see page 6

How to fight an oil spill Hands, shovels and spirit repel a black tide

LA is turning it around

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Measuring up

SF Iberia will never forget the Prestige.

Carrying 77,000 tones of oil, it sent an SOS from near the coast of Spain triggering a story of chaos, confusion, effort, bravery and intuition as local SSF people fought with hands, shovels and lumber against a menacing black tide.

On November 13th 2002, the weather fore-

SSF Iberia battles the Prestige oil spill

W O R L D W I D E

cast warned of windstorms. That afternoon, the Prestige reported its difficulties. However, multiple accidents were happening along the coast, so the Prestige’s predicament did not trigger any special alarm. The following morning, however, the tanker was spilling tonnes of oil and, unable to maneuver, was drifting close to Stolt’s farm in Merexo. continued on page 4

Meet the players Page 10 SSF locations around the globe are achieving new ISO certificates

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News from Chile SSF Chile and its employees work together to make the company stronger Page 13

“I enjoy spring time. We finally deliver the smolt we have been following carefully for more than a year.”

— SSF veteran Harald Mundal

continued from page one which will soon need more thorough cleaning before discharge into the municipal lagoon. Absolutely essential: a new $700,000, state-of-the-art facility.

Plant manager Paul Watson is proud of this new facility, one of the first of its kind in the province. “Basically what happens,” he explains, “is that the larger solids are first filtered out for composting then, by using a combination of chemicals and streams of tiny air bubbles, the finer particles are floated to the surface, to be skimmed off before the water enters the lagoon.”

It’s a major investment and the east coast team is looking for a way to ease the financial burden.

The new system will be able to process 200 gallons a minute. Stolt’s current output is only about half of that.

Paul is negotiating with a neighboring processing plant about buying part of his excess capacity. Their operations are considerably smaller than Stolt’s, but they too would have to build a facility to comply with the new regulations. Under a three-year agreement, the other company would help

Happy Birthday Stolt Sea Farm!

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SF celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

That’s quite an accomplishment, and one that we can all take pride in.

Let’s meet someone who has been there since the beginning.

with part of the capital costs and pay part of the operational costs. In exchange, it could utilize 10 percent of the volume.

Searching out savings Telecommunications is fundamental to today’s business world. Faxes, cell phones, e-mail, video-conferencing, the internet and intranets all help connect companies, customers and suppliers.

By painstakingly reviewing all cell phone and long distance packages Stole Sea Farm Americas’ business systems team achieved remarkable savings through consolidation.

By switching to an enterprise-wide cell phone program with Bell Mobility, they reduced costs by a whopping 40 percent, saving the company about $3,000 a month in eastern Canada alone.

By renegotiating long distance rates, these specialists cut them from more than 20 cents a minute to five and a half cents in Canada and three-and-a-half cents in the US. Eventually telecommunications costs will be reduced even further as the compa-

A passion for fish After 29 years with SSF, Harald Mundal, site manager in Fjon, which produces trout and salmon smolt, still has a passion for fish — and for his job.

“No day is the same,” he explains.

“There are new challenges all the time.

Biological production is far from predictable.”

The 57-year-old joined SSF in 1974 when only three people worked at Fjon.

In 1975, they delivered 29,000 baby

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salmon. That seemed a large number.

Then Bjørn Myrseth, manager in Fjon, came back from a sales trip and claimed they could sell three times as many. “We thought he was joking.”

He wasn’t. The market went straight up. The following year they sold ten times as many.

“It was fascinating to be part of such growth,” Harald recalls. “Everything we did turned into success. The spirit was awesome.”

For five years, spring and summer,

ny moves to voice-over IP technology, allowing free long distance calls over the internet. That, however, is still quite a way down the road. For now everyone needs to constantly review telecommunications usage, making sure that SSF leverages its volume to get the best rates possible.

Another achieved advantage: The Bell Mobility package lets SSF use a single web portal to monitor cell usage across Canada, making sure the resources are being used properly and only for company purposes.

Getting the message out Stolt Sea Farm in America has joined forces with other industry players to form Salmon of the Americas (SOTA) to counter misinformation being spread about salmon farming.

SOTA represents the producers of 90 percent of the farmed salmon sold in North America.

SSFA’s president Jim Gracie, who sits on the three-person executive board, notes the differences between SOTA and other salmon farming industry associations. “It’s different in several key ways,” he notes. The many aquaculture associations address regional or national issues, SOTA has members from Canada, the United States and Chile, so is truly international. continued on page 3 he traveled by boat up the coast of Norway, delivering smolt. He met industry people all the way up to Hammerfest, the northernmost city in the world. “Interesting for a young man,” he notes.

1986 was the best year. Today, prices are low and the market tougher. He’s philosophical about that. “In Stolt Sea Farm,” he notes, “the company has taken good care of us, even in difficult times.

“And I enjoy every day at work.”

President’s Perspective continued from page 2 “Its intended audience is different as well. The regional associations aim their efforts at regulatory and industry audiences, SOTA’s efforts reach out to foodservice companies, retailers, consumers and the press to counter the misinformation spread by our critics, and to communicate the real health and nutritional benefits of eating farmed salmon. Our work complements that of the other associations. ” The first three issues SOTA will tackle are: 1. Pigments and dyes (see story below) 2. PCB’s and contaminants

3. Antibiotics and medications Jim points out these are all issues of food safety and quality. “As an industry we have nothing to be ashamed of. To the contrary, we produce a healthy, high-quality source of protein for a hungry world.

“It is easy for critics to cobble together an emotional argument based on poor science. We plan to get our factual message out.”

To which James Stove-Lorentzen adds, “We are proud of our industry and we have nothing to hide. We need an open dialogue with our critics, based on facts and scientific data and not emotions.”

Let’s not color the issue Critics of farmed salmon try to establish a link between the pigments added to salmon feed and retinal damage.

The basis for the claim is highly dubious.

In the wild, salmon get their color naturally when they eat other marine organisms that contain carotenoids.

Manufacturers synthesize two of these carotenoids, astaxanthin and canthaxanthin, that are added to fish feed.

In the 1980’s canthaxanthin began to be used as a dietary supplement to give people an instant “tan”. Some people foolishly figured that if one pill was good several should be even better. People abusing the pills suffered from crystals in the retina, which caused some cases of night blindness. The condition was reversible.

Health experts now recommend a maximum daily limit of 0.03 mg canthaxanthin per kilo of body weight per day. To receive that much from farmed salmon an average adult would need to consume about 16 kilograms a day.

Dr. Charles R. Santerre, associate professor of foods and nutrition at Purdue University, declares bluntly, “Low levels of the color pigment found in both farmed salmon and wild salmon are inconsequential from a food safety perspective.

Astaxanthin is an antioxidant that is beneficial for fish and may actually be good for humans as well. There is no difference between the naturally occurring astaxanthin in wild salmon and the synthesized

version used in farmed salmon feed.

“It upsets me that some groups that claim to be advocating for consumers, are in some cases not operating in the best interest of consumers. Farmed salmon is safe to eat and full of long chain omega-3 fats that promote good health. Most importantly, consumers can now afford to buy salmon and feed it to their families throughout the year. Aquaculture production of fish is here to stay because it benefits consumers.

“The health advantages of eating fish that are high in Omega 3 fatty acids are enormously important. The fat DHA, is important for brain development in infants and the fat EPA, can reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death in older individuals. So, the fats found in fish help at both ends of the age spectrum. Nutritionists want people to eat more fish, like salmon.” He’s delighted, for example, that lower-income families in his home state of Indiana can now afford a diet containing more fish.

Dr. Stewart Anderson, global marketing manager, aquaculture for Roche Vitamins that manufactures the pigments, says his company has looked for alternatives to the carotenoids but nothing measures up, “These are the same family of chemicals that make tomatoes red and corn yellow,” he notes.

“I suppose you could say that Mother Nature knows best.”

Showing off.

Once again, Stolt Sea Farm wowed the crowds at this year’s well-attended Brussels Seafood Show in May. SSF people from Europe, Asia/Pacific, Chile and North America manned the 36 square meter booth.

They offered a wide range of SSF products for sampling, including value-added and smoked products from Belgium and Sterling shrimp from Indonesia.

Sales and marketing manager Martin Alberts explains that months of planning go into preparing for the show each year, and that a lot of people work to make it a success. He particularly thanks sales assistant Siska Vanderhaeghe for her work leading up to the show.

The team is already planning next year’s effort.

Siska

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Beating the Oil Spill continued from page 1

The spill reaches Calal

Anxious moments at Merexo

Heavy Equipment is called in

Stolt staff ranged the beaches, watching the tanker only five kilometers away. The government decided to tow it away. At midday the vessel began to move, surrounded by a huge spill of 5,000 tones of floating oil.

Strong winds were supposed to take this spill away from the coast, but SSF sent all senior Iberia staff to Merexo, just in case. They arrived to discover the wind blowing towards the coast, not away. They could not see any oil but, from two nearby towns, people phoned Pablo García, president of SSF Iberia, about boats returning with their hulls covered in oily muck.

The spill seemed unstoppable. If it arrived at Merexo, the fish would have to be taken to Lira.

Merexo is a fattening farm with 200 tones of turbot and a hatchery. If it were contaminated, all of SSF Iberia’s operations would be seriously affected. Even if it were decided to evacuate, only a quarter of the fish could leave. Should the pumps be shut down, the rest of the fish would die in two hours.

Finally, the oil could be seen from the beach, heading in. Roberto Piñeiro, site manager, shut the pumps down when the spill was very superficial and broke into small ponds. Playing with that two-hour period between stopping the pumps and losing the fish, Roberto shut the pumps down when oil reached them. When the spill had gone over the pumps, he started them again. The farm spent the entire day hovering between life and death.

The night passed slowly, heavily.

When oil got into the pumps, workers jumped in to remove it then waited again.

In 48 hours, they removed a tonne of the stuff. On Monday morning the wind changed and the oil sat, still, at the entrance of the bay. Merexo was safe.

The Prestige, with one more tank ruptured, was now 100 miles away, drifting south with the changing winds. Spain and Portugal

SSF volunteers help turn back the tide would not let it enter their harbours, so the ship was trying to get to Africa.

On November 19th, the Prestige split in two and sank, spilling another 15,000 tones. It had left a tail of oil along the whole Galician coast.

Nobody knew where the black tide was going.

Everything depended on the wind.

SSF Iberia’s Lira facility, the largest in the world, was in the path of the spill. Pablo warned everybody the oil could reach the farm’s beaches on Sunday. If the farm had to close, SSF would face disaster.

The spill announced itself with a stench. Oil particles carried by the wind covered people’s faces. Then they saw it.

“It was the true image of death,” Garcia recalls. “A 200-meter pond of dark brown quiet and heavy water opened in front of us. Around this pond, the waves were five meters high. In it, the water did not move.”

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To sea birds seeking refuge from the storm, the quiet waters looked deceptively safe. Stolt people watched in horror as birds dived into the oil and stuck and drowned.

For the first time, Pablo thought about shutting down the pumps and closing the farm.

The worst part, he recalls, was “thinking how many people would lose their jobs.”

Then, when the oil was only 300 meters away, the wind changed. The oil moved away from Lira and entered a cove only 30 meters from the pumps. Stolt people hiked the coast, astonished to see all the coves around Lira filled with oil. All except the one where the pumps are! Fifteen thousand tones of oil had somehow spared Lira.

However, there was still the risk of a wind change, a stronger tide. Everything could still be lost. The oil had to be removed. continued on page 5

Beating the Oil Spill continued from page 4 SSF tested different methods to prevent the oil reaching the tanks. They built floating barriers with logs, plastic and grills.

Because of the farm’s location in a protected environmental area, they could not bring in cranes or excavators, so employees removed the oil with anything they could find, including their own hands. “It was like an immense bowl of soup that kept refilling itself. We emptied it and emptied it, but it refilled and refilled,” Pablo remembers. Ramón Beiro, Lira site manager, coordinated the cleaning operation, fight-

ing a spill five kilometers long, 150 meters wide, two meters deep.

There was no point saving the fish, however, if the market would not trust it. Customers, alarmed by pictures of workers and volunteers submerged in oil, demanded a guarantee that the turbot were in perfect condition.

Every load of fish leaving Lira was analysed.

From the first day of the spill, all tests came back negative: the fish were clean.

The cleaning went on for 20 days. Sometimes it seemed the oil would never stop. More than a month after the tanker sank, the spills changed direction and headed north. The spill drifted away. Lira really was, now, safe.

SSF’s La Couronne is flying high!

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nce again, SSF’s La Couronne has been named one of Avia Partner’s suppliers of the year.

Avia Partner, which provides a wide range of services at airports across Europe, is known as a demanding customer that accepts only the highest quality.

Its catering service orders 50 La Couronne products; mainly upscale items with worthwhile margins, including fresh and frozen salmon portions. It prepares meals for all classes, but uses the upscale La Couronne products mainly for business class.

La Couronne will go to great lengths to

satisfy any customer’s demands, and especially this one. Asked recently to supply smoked scallop meat, it sourced the meat from Norway, developed a recipe and sent samples.

SSF Europe’s sales and marketing manager Martin Alberts notes that Avia Partner’s reputation makes the award especially important. “People know that Avia demands the best service and the best product. This award shows the world that we meet those exacting standards.

“It is a great calling card for us,” he says.

Update on Vilano In yet another first, SSF's state-of-the art turbot farm under construction in Vilano Spain, will incorporate a water inlet carved 210 meters through granite bedrock.

This process offers tremendous advantages over the one-meter pipe traditionally laid on the ocean floor. Divers can easily access the two-and-a-half meter tunnel to remove sand and debris. And, since it is not a pipe, storms or heavy seas cannot damage the inlet. This design also adds greater protection against the types of spills caused by the Prestige disaster since cold water is drawn from deeper below the ocean's surface.

Its construction uses the same technology used to dig the "chunnel" connecting England and France.

Removing the oil is painstaking work

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Terry hoists the cup!

Our new egg-to-plate series

First steps: broodstock to eggs to smolt

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tolt produces more than 27 million salmon and trout smolt a year! To do this well demands the best eggs possible. And that demands the best broodstock.

Knut Senstad of Norway helps make sure that’s available. An 18-year veteran with Stolt, he’s been group farming coordinator since 2001.

“The way I look at my job,” he says, “the people in our hatcheries, in smolt production and in ongrowing are all my customers. I must

make sure they have what they need — the best feed, the best equipment, the best information, the best practices, and the best eggs.”

Making sure that everyone is sharing information is another important aspect to his work. “It is vital that we make sure that we share all the latest company and industry news and reports,” he says. “In the past, many in our industry focused too much attention on the large fish in our saltwater

The remaining carefully selected fish are kept in land-based freshwater facilities from July to October, when they are stripped of their eggs and the eggs fertilized. Each male and female is closely inspected. They regularly achieve a success rate of 75-80 percent of “eyed” eggs, that’s the stage when the dark pupil pigments of the developing egg become visible.

Stolt sells 3 million eggs a year to more than 50 external customers. (For higher margins, it will

notes that this limited volume makes it harder to keep the generations separate.

“The restrictions don’t limit the amount of eggs we can produce,” he says. “But they do make it difficult to keep the different families and generations apart. This threatens our bio-security.”

This fall, the team is trying a new strategy. In a system already established with trout, it will put broodstock salmon into sea

Some helpful terms Ova Alvelin Fry

non-fertilized egg newly hatched smallest fish stage, with and without yolk sac PAR juvenile salmon before they are ready to switch from a fresh to a saltwater environment Smolt Juveniles after they are fully acclimatized to salt water Grilse maturing fish Broodstockselected male& female kept for egg production Diploid egg/fish with two sets of chromosome Triploid egg/fish with three sets of chromosome Fertilize mixing sperm and ova, Eyed egg egg at stage of development where eyes can be seen inside eggshell Fecundity number of potential eggs produced by female fish Oocyte egg staged inside female, up to spawning Incubator trays, box, tank unit where eggs are kept up to hatching Daydegree multiplication of number of days and degree Celsius © of water Startfeedingfirst time feed is offer to fry Oogenesis formation of ova

SSF BC brings in the brood stock: The brailer net raises fish from inside the sectioning net

The brailer prepares to deposit fish in broodstock take

operations. It’s our work in broodstock, genetics and freshwater growth where we can make fundamental progress in producing better fish, more economically.”

soon sell fewer eggs and more smolt.)

Stolt buys 100,000 smolt a year from high-tech competitors and rears them separately to benchmark against its own eggs. So far there’s been no difference in final yields.

A challenge is the limit on rearing licenses. Stolt’s limit of 7,000 cubic meters has not changed since 1997. That number is shared among six generations of trout and salmon.

Production manager Frode Mathisen, who oversees SSF Europe’s breeding programs,

Here’s how they do it in Europe In Norway, SSF breeds Atlantic salmon and trout.

They keep the broodstock in separate marine sites, classified by growth rate, maturation, body shape, deformities and skin color, eliminating any fish that mature too quickly.

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The brailer lifts fish from pen on to the Orca Warrior

cages at six months instead of one year.

SSF Europe produces 12-million eyed eggs a year, including more than 3-million that it will soon start supplying to UK hatcheries.

The Chilean approach. Learning what can be achieved with genetics SSF’s breeding program in Chile ● employs high tech genetic screening and tracking; and ● is a 50/50 joint venture with Land continued on page 7

First steps continued from page 6 Catch Natural Selection of Scotland. The company is called Landcatch Chile The program, which began in 1998, aims to improve the strain of Atlantic salmon by using genetic testing to identify, track and monitor individual fish and families.

SSF BC brings in the broodstock:

SSF Americas produces 20 million eyed eggs and 2.8 million smolt a year.

gives you the most control.”

SSF Chile is now into its fifth generation of monitored family groupings. By carefully analyzing the success of the different individuals and families, then cross-referencing that with their genetic make-up, they are able to pair the right fish to achieve the desired traits.

Now, after five years, they can start to measure final results. Up to this point, fresh-

SSF Americas’ East Coast maintains security on both sides of the border SSF Americas’ East Coast operations in Maine and New Brunswick straddle the American/Canadian border, which restricts the movement of biological material. Production manager Dean Guest faces many restrictions when it comes to moving eggs or fish across the border. While his main breeding program takes place on the Canadian side, he hedges his bets by keeping generations of broodstock on the American side, in case disease ever shuts the border.

New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy, home to

Anaesthetized fish during the sort

Fish head down pipes to hold

stock. After receiving stock from this program, SSF ships it to another company, located in Prince Edward Island, which raises it in a secure land-based freshwater facility.

One set of pedigreed siblings is kept in freshwater, the other in marine cages. By observing the success of the siblings in the marine cages, SSF can decide which of the fresh water broodstock to cross. While keeping the broodstock in fresh water is costly, a disease outbreak would be more so.

It had been assumed that raising salmon in fresh water would yield small fish. It now seems that, given the right conditions, they can grow quite large. The brood do have a

Pen’s net is raised to trap fish for brailer

A lifting device flips open Jose Manuel Bernales, general manger of Landcatch Chile, explains, “With conventional mass selection programs, you perform visual selection at stripping, select for limited traits, and have limited control of inbreeding.

With our family breeding programs, we have better control of inbreeding and can select for multiple traits. Our program uses molecular genetic testing and quantitative genetic analysis for processing performance, genetic fingerprinting, and selection at the gene level. It is the most advanced technique that

water results have shown reduced losses related to the viability of the eggs, fewer deformities and a reduced risk of transferring disease from broodstock to egg.

Jose is excited about the future. “In our industry previous efforts to improve growth and survival concentrated on nutrition, feed regimen, husbandry and vaccines. Now genetics will play an increasingly important role. The capabilities that genetics provide to obtain specific lines with desirable attributes will be pivotal.”

many salmon farms, has been hit in the past by outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia and the limited amount of space in the bay makes it difficult to separate brood sites adequately. The first signs of an outbreak can force the eradication of large numbers of fish. It would be disastrous if that affected broodstocks, so the program has developed safeguards SSF is a partner in a government/industry venture that breeds pedigreed, pit-tagged PAR (the stage between fry and smolt) brood-

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70-80 percent grilsing (maturing too quickly) rate but, Dean notes, “On the positive side, that lets us select from the remaining fish, which we then know have a very low likelihood of grilsing.”

This past fall, the freshwater broodstock spawned for the first time. The eggs were then fertilized, and shipped to SSF hatcheries.

Another challenge in New Brunswick is that SSF is allowed to use only the strain of salmon native to the St. John River or from continued on page 8

First steps continued from page 7

east coast, where SSF can study the marine performance of the triploids, while retaining the diploids for broodstock.

While optimistic, Dean notes that this study is years away from completion.

SSF East Coast produces 5 million eyedeggs and 3.5 million smolt a year.

Stolt Sea Farm Americas.

The West Coast way

Sophisticated genetic testing and high tech breeding techniques keep SSF’s Landcatch Chile partnership on the cutting edge

a Cascadian stock originally from Quebec.

That stock has been kept in a disease-free, freshwater environment since the 1970’s.

SSF is working with a PEI partner, the Canadian government and an Icelandic company to develop a strain of Icelandic salmon that could perform well on the east coast as triploids.

These are fish that have been induced to have an extra set of chromosomes, which renders them female and sterile, and thus no threat to natural stocks should they escape. (These are not genetically modified. Subjecting the eggs to pressure causes the developing fetus to retain an extra set of chromosomes during cell division.)

To study this strain, both normal fish and the sterile triploids have been brought to the

SSF’s west coast operations are also devising strategies to help protect their broodstock stock from diseases and algae blooms. They have begun a land-based, fresh-water program to keep broodstock stock secure. They plan to begin producing eggs in late 2005.

Their existing program is a hybrid. They keep most broodstock stock in a marine environment under production conditions, albeit at separate premium sites. These fish are later transferred to a marine broodstock holding site where, in June, they select fish for desired traits and transfer these to fresh water

ized eggs over a longer period.

Freshwater manager Dennis Kaechele points out that the move to fresh water is what the salmon do naturally when they return to their home rivers to spawn. The freshwater environment also gives SSF better control over conditions and yields better quality eggs. The land-based facility provides easier transport. “You can just pull up a pickup truck and drive away,” he says.

SSF west coast produces between five and six million eyed-eggs a year.

Skilled technicians and attention to detail are the keys to success

tanks for spawning.

While at sea, large lights attached to the cages are shone at the fish during the night.

By manipulating light levels in this way, the fish react as if the summer was accelerated.

In the freshwater tanks, they are beginning to manipulate temperature to simulate fall conditions. These actions hopefully induce the fish to spawn six weeks earlier than they would in the wild. This helps rationalize production by spreading the production of fertil-

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The science and the scientist behind brood stock development Last fall, SSF asked Dr. Roger Doyle to review SSF’s broodstock programs on both North American coasts and come up with recommendations to help the company have — or be well on its way to developing — the world’s very best broodstock. His recommendations, available by the end of this year, will be specific to each location and also broadly useful for the entire company.

He is an obvious choice for the challenge. He has an MSc from Dalhousie and a PhD from Yale, and has extensive research, development and commercial experience in aquaculture genetics in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Dr. Doyle has long been involved with SSF’s tilapia program.

He has already visited and been impressed by the Scottish operations of high-tech egg producer LandCatch, with whom SSF operates its joint breeding program in Chile. He emphasizes, however, that his recommendations will cover a wide range of actions, from the use of new technologies to simply improving husbandry techniques “One of the biggest dangers with any breeding program is inbreeding. You can greatly reduce that risk by taking extra care and keeping very precise records.”

“The key,” he says, “is to make the best use possible of existing facilities.”

New v-p of sales: “Define what makes us unique”

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mmediately after John Tuttle joined SSF this past spring as v-p of sales and marketing for the Americas, he toured the region’s locations.

His goals: ●

to meet the people, to get to know the company, but above all ● to “define what makes this company unique.”

“That’s the key,” John explains. “We must define what we can do that our competitors cannot. That’s what we need to capitalize on.” ●

His verdict?

“SSF’s people are tremendous. From the person giving me a tour of a hatchery to the person harvesting the fish, I was impressed by the enthusiasm and professionalism.

“Building on our excellence in farming, I see our sales and marketing operations as a real strength. I see our seafood centers as a real defining difference. Some competitors do have processing capabilities, but they’re

John at the point of production. Only we have the processing centers close to our markets. So only we can deliver fresh, value-added products to our customers every day. That makes us different. That’s our strength.”

What else is John excited about?

1. Smoked products He sees huge potential for the sale of both imported smoked products from the La Courrone plant in Belgium and Sterling branded smoked products from Chile.

2. Other species Broadening the range of products sold is important. John will look at adding new species to the portfolio of the Americas region such as tuna and tilapia. There is also a clear opportunity for SSF to improve the networking between the Americas, Asia/ Pacific region and Europe region to capitalize on our worldwide sales effort.

3. Improving communication between sales and production

Roger

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“We must make what we sell, not sell what we make,” he emphasizes. That’s not as easy as it sounds. It takes a long time from fertilizing an egg to harvesting a fish. By improving communication and forecasting tools, “we’ll be better able to have the right products at the right time for the market.”

What are the challenges?

“Sterling is a very strong brand in food service but, for the most part, unknown at retail.

Strengthening its presence there will be our biggest challenge.” This will require innovative thinking, and working closely with retails chains.

“After all,” John says, “when a consumer sees our fresh product, it is displayed on a bed of ice. There is no brand name visible.”

Establishing a sales strategy and clearly defining the expectations that SSF has for the Americas sales team will insure his goals are met.

Teamwork !!

Out of the red and into the black LA Seafood center turns its fortunes around

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n May 26, SSF’s Los Angeles seafood center became five years old.

It has not been an easy five years.

Productivity was dismal. Now, thanks to the hard work of the entire team, they have turned things around.

The turnaround began last summer after the departure of the GM and plant manager.

Anthony Castro, who was newly hired as controller, could see that there were many opportunities for improvement.

“The plant was in disarray,” he recalls. “It needed organization and standard operating procedures.” A strong believer in teamwork, he immediately gathered together distribution manager Charles Clay, production manager Raul Fernandez and sales’ Bob Vogel.

Together they vowed to do whatever was

needed to turn it around.

“In our first team meeting,” Charles remembers, “we realized there is no one individual who can turn this business around alone. However, collectively as a team we can do this.”

Raul agrees. “I love my job, Charles loves his job, Bob and Anthony love their jobs.

Failure was not an option.”

“I used to own my own business,” recalls Charles. “When you have your own business and don’t make a profit, you don’t eat.”

He adds, “I’m 6’4” and 240 lbs. I need to eat!”

They began with the basics, breaking down the hard costs, often with surprising results.

In some cases, they needed to raise their prices. “After all,” Bob

says, “if it costs you $3.50 to make a product, you can’t sell it for $3.25.”

They also improved communication among sales, production and logistics.

Previously sales might put through a large order without warning and production would not be able to meet the demand. Now information flows freely in both directions.

When a customer asks Bob for a new product, he now goes to Anthony to get the true costs, then to Raul and Charles to see how it can be done. Once they have worked it out together, he gets back to the customer. “In the past,” Bob acknowledges, “we would have just made the sale, without factoring in all the costs, such as labor and packaging. Now we’re much more focused.”

The changes in productivity have been dramatic. In August 1998, continued on page 11

left to right: Anthony, Charles, Raul and quality manager Paul Mestas

Team LA 10

&

Talking listening

Teamwork in LA continued from page 10 the center processed 85,000 lbs of salmon; in April 2003, it processed 527,000 lbs.

Where once they averaged 2,000 lbs a day, they now average 40,000.

Good communications extend beyond the center. Before, sales had been content to sell what customers asked for. Now they ask themselves, “Who are our customers and how can we help supply them with what they really need?”

“And it is not just our customers,” Bob explains. “We have some customers in food service and distribution who have 800 or 900 of their own customers. We ask ourselves, ‘What do those customers want?’ To find out, we got out there and did a lot of listening.”

Anthony cautions this is just the beginning. “So far we’ve been picking a lot of low hanging fruit,” he says. “We must keep the momentum, striving for continuous improvement.”

“One of our next initiatives is to establish committees of production floor personnel to get input on how to improve processes and remove bottlenecks. It is important that we break down any barriers to communication between office and production people.

“It is important that we continue to stimulate change and progress by doing things the best possible way rather than the way it’s always been done.”

SSF Chile keeps the lines of communication open

T

wice a year, SSF Chile’s human resources people arrange a series of meetings to gather and hear from their roughly one thousand employees.

President Alejandro Pizarro attends many of the meetings personally, so he can hear for himself what the people are saying. The main aim of these 40 get-togethers, according to Fernando Silva, human resources manager, is “to gain a first-hand knowledge of the work environment.

“We discuss company goals for the coming year and any problems people would like to see solved. The staff are usually concerned about salaries, family situations, health coverage and housing.”

A recent series also explained what to expect from SSF’s acquisition of Eicosal, how that would affect daily work and what the collective labor agreement was going to be.

Fernando has been organizing these meetings since 1996. “We have an excellent exchange of ideas and opinions,” he says.

Working smarter: LA’s Seafood Center

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SSF/ISO: What it’s about, where it’s happening ISO certification, internationally recognized stamp of quality ISO certification proves to employees, customers and the world that an organization conforms to the strictest internationally recognized standards of quality, as drawn up by the International Organization for Standardization.

Different types of certification have different focuses, but they all require a company to document exactly how ISO standards are applied in their operations. Ongoing internal audits then make sure the procedures continue to meet the standards and promptly correct any accidental slippages. Finally, an external firm checks everything out.

The certifications of particular interest to Stolt Sea Farm are: ● ISO 9000 quality management certification, and ● ISO 14001 environmental certification.

Here’s the progress at several SSF locations.

Chile

The challenge was getting it all down on paper

In qualifying for both ISO 9000 and 14001 certificates this July, SSF Chile became that country’s first aquaculture company to do so.

It took 18 months to get up to speed but it was worth it: the certification has already borne fruit. “We have made tremendous progress on improving our processes and managing our waste,” Fernando Silva, human resources manager, explains.

“Although we were already close to meeting the standards, the challenge was in documenting every single step of every single part of every single process. Now we have more than 100 written handbooks.” ISO certification includes the whole production process, from the water tanks to the delivery of the fish, so it required a huge coordinated effort from all the staff at Puerto Montt.

The certificates are valid for three years.

Audits every six months will verify that the company continues to comply.

“I wish the entire salmon industry had these certificates,” Silva says. “It creates a strong public image with the consumer. We are growing ever closer to the European market, which has very demanding environmental regulations.”

What’s next?

SSF Chile has set its sights on obtaining other international certification in areas of work safety and social responsibility.

Spain

Living up to the toughest global environmental standards

SSF Iberia has finished implementing both ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 standards and is completing the documentation process. It expects to be certified this fall.

The company made a huge effort to comply with all the very detailed ISO 14001 specifications. Then the problem became finding external companies that also meet the standards. For example, explains Emilio Ferro, project manager at Lira, “We now know perfectly well how to

manage our waste, but we cannot find an outside service to pick it up and dispose of it in compliance with ISO requirements.”

Having completed a successful external audit this September, SSF Spain has received pre-certification, and is awaiting final certification. From this point forward a continuing improvement process will be checked on periodically. Emilio notes, “ISO 9000, about quality, wasn’t a problem, since our standards were already higher than the ones ISO required.”

However, ISO 14001’s environmental standards immerse the company in a web of provincial, national and international rules and laws. “According to some of these rules,” Emilio sighs, “one of our sites fell into the same category as a nuclear plant!”

Canada

Here’s international proof this SSF location is environmentally responsible

Josée Migneault, manager of safety and quality

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at SSF Campbell River, championed its process of obtaining ISO 14001 certification, received last January. “We started the implementation of an environmental management system three years ago; however we applied the ISO 14001 standards in March of 2002,” she says.

The whole process took almost three years and its first priority was employee training. Next, they created an efficient system of record keeping and management to put the standards into practice.

“The company faced an especially heavy load of regulations,” Josée recalls. Some were imposed by the British Columbia government so had to be met instantly.

“ISO 14001 certification is especially important for us because, in this area, environmental issues are extremely sensitive. Now, we can prove to the public that we care and have official recognition of this. However, it will take time to get the significance of this certification across to the public.”

After all, she adds, “You can have the best programs in place but, if left unaware, the public at large will not recognize all the hard work Stolt Sea Farm and its people continued on page 13

ISO continued from page 12 devote to protecting the environment.

“With ISO 14001 certification, we now have the external recognition and proof of our goodwill.”

Europe

ISO is second nature at SSF Norway

SSF Europe’s quality assurance manger Kjersti Brakstad explains that Norway has had ISO 9001 certification since 1996, so long, in fact, “that we don’t even notice it anymore. It is just the way we do things.”

In the UK, a seven-person team headed up

by Anne Marie MacIver is currently implementing the standards, and plans to receive certification in November.

“They are really enthusiastic,” Kjersti says.

“At first, I think that there may have been some fears that it would involve a lot of extra work, but they are seeing the benefits certification will bring.”

The system is electronic, and all procedures, reports, analysis and non-conformances are available on the SSF intranet. This makes it much easier to maintain the system and to distribute information.

The same company that audits and certifies Norway, will audit and certify the UK, guaranteeing that customers can expect the same high level of quality across SSF’’s European operations.

On other fronts, Norway has carried out an initial environmental review and identified environmental aspects that are identified in the ISO 14001 certification, but it has not yet been decided to implement the total system and apply for accreditation.

Productivity and employee satisfaction in Chile Getting better all the time

T

o increase productivity levels, SSF Chile recently developed two parallel programs.

A) Continuous improvement

At weekly meetings in each production area, groups of five or six people including supervisors analyze various indicators to see whether the company’s productivity goals are being met.

To launch this program, they had to train group members to use “indicators”, quantifiable elements that check productivity

indexes. Every two months, they discuss what they have learned with site managers, to give them the “pulse” of how the site is working. The result: 95 percent of this year’s goals have already been reached.

The nine such working groups are all in processing. This year’s goal is to extend the program to other areas, such as refrigeration or logistics.

B) Certification of qualifications This program lets people earn more than one certificate so they can tackle more

A monitor works with an employee on improving the filet cleaning process

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than one job in a day. Plant manager Pedro Laporte explains, “This not only improves our use of the labor force, it also increases employee satisfaction – and salaries. And reduces the absenteeism provoked by too much routine.”

People chosen for the program take a course to prove their ability to work in a second job. After written and practical tests, they work with a monitor.

These monitors, who have all attended courses on leadership, supervision and communication, may be the most important figures in this program. Close to 30 of them in the processing plants are responsible for making sure that — all processes match the continuous improvement program; and — the new workers do their jobs right.

The multiple certification program is voluntary but received a great response from employees. This year’s goal is to have half the staff receive double certification, and next year’s is to cover everyone. At the moment, the program is focused on the more demanding fresh fish processing area.

“Not many companies promote this kind of multiple training,” notes Pedro, who thinks they could export it to other SSF sites. “It is very positive, especially in the level of participation among the staff.”

These two programs are part of the requisites to obtain ISO 9000 and 14001 certificates, which require a continuous improvement system.

Secrets of success for SSF tuna farming

They’re Aussies, they’re good at their work, and they love it How did SSF’s Australian tuna farming operation come so far so fast that it’s now a world leader? In large part, it’s because of the dedicated progressive attitude of Stolt people on land and on and under the sea.

The tuna farming takes place in and around Port Lincoln, a town of 13,500 on the edge of the Great Australian Bight.

The Port Lincoln scene wasn’t too bright a decade ago when the tuna fishing fleet was battling low prices and world tuna stocks seemed to be in decline. The future did not look good.

Then some of the local fishers decided to try bringing the valuable southern bluefin back to port alive and fattening them in sea cages until they reached peak condition for the Japanese consumer. SSF saw a bright future for this homegrown technique. About

three years ago it bought out Australian Bluefin, the original company set up by Joe Puglisi, one of the fishing pioneers.

Meet the SSF Australia team Ben Vetch, dive team leader Ben, 29, leads Stolt’s team of eight divers who follow the fish in the tow cages on their way back from the Bight to make sure the valuable cargo is not harassed by sharks.

They also inspect the farms daily, repairing nets and removing dead fish and predators.

To help these divers do their jobs, Stolt uses remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs), which let them not only cover more ground but also avoid potentially dangerous situations.

“I love an outdoor lifestyle and these challenging diving situations,” says Ben.

“It’s also great to be working as part of a good team.”

Beck Paterson, marine biologist Born and bred in Port Lincoln, Beck figures she’s lucky to have a job in her field that lets her work in her hometown and on the surrounding seas She earned a bachelor of applied science in aquaculture with honors from the University of Tasmania. For SSF she is in charge of environmental monitoring. With high-tech equipment such as underwater cameras, she notes any impact the farms have on the seabed. This turns out to be minimal because of the relatively deep water, fast current and abundance of scavenger fish.

She spends about 40 percent of her time out on the water, monitoring fish health and

Beck

Ben

collecting and analyzing any mortalities. Her laboratory work includes testing the local and imported fish fed to the tuna. She also studies production statistics to summarize fish and farm performances for the managers. There’s continual work on research and development to improve best practices.

Environmental monitoring includes working with South Australia’s primary industry department and scientists from the South Australian Research and Development Institute in preparing farm licenses and approvals.

Pablo Edwards, quality control officer Attention to detail is also important in Pablo’s work. He’s the only quality control specialist in local tuna farming. Where the other companies rely on visiting Japanese continued on page 15

Pablo

They’re Aussies

Parasco

continued from page 14

Frank

Mark

experts to check their product quality, Pablo oversees the process from the beginning. He goes out to the Bight where the fish are caught, follows them back, then dives on the farms to make sure they are getting the best treatment.

His busiest time comes when harvesting begins. He watches closely as the fish are gilled and gutted at the farms and when they are brought back for processing at the factory. “I see the fish from the start and follow them all the way until they are sent off to Japan,” he explains.

Frank Taferner, chief engineer Frank also has had a long association with Port Lincoln. He came to the tuna industry after setting up his own engineering and boat building business. He has been chief engineer for 18 years and is now in charge of eight vessels plus equipment and machinery at the factories and workshops. In accordance with Australian maritime law, an engineer is assigned to each vessel to make sure the fleet stays in top running order.

“We use preventative maintenance as much as possible,” he says.

His son Mark began working in the tuna industry 13 years ago as a diver and is now an SSF skipper.

Of course, the safety of his crew and vessel is at the forefront of every skipper’s mind Parasco Papazoglov, factory hand Born and raised in Port Lincoln, Parasco has worked in SSF’s shore-based operations for the last 15 years and says he wouldn’t do anything else.

“I love what I do,” he says. His job entails more than just working in the factory and driving trucks and forklifts. He is also involved during the busy harvest when the fish are brought in from the offshore cages.

He says the managers at all levels are always willing to listen and work with employees, which makes the job that much more enjoyable.

Shae Freeman Shae grew up in a small town on the remote and isolated West Coast. She loves country life and is glad Stolt has given her the opportunity to remain in her home region, close to her family.

“I didn’t want to move to the city, but there are not many young people in my hometown, so I was lucky to get this job in Port Lincoln.”

She finds her job keeping track of the company’s accounts and payroll enjoyable and challenging.

Greg Dixon, skipper Greg skippers the 14-metre converted prawn trawler Julie M that is now a tuna support vessel. He is also second in command on Stolt’s tow operations.

Unlike other fishing skippers who can wait out rough weather, tuna seamen have to go out to the farms every day to check and feed the fish, rain or shine.

That’s OK. “It’s exhilarating in rough weather,” says Greg. “I enjoy the sea and being on the ocean.

Things change from day to day when you’re working outdoors.”

Greg

Shae

Sea Change

is published for the people of Stolt Sea Farm If you have comments, praise, complaints or suggestions please contact: Margaret Bice Email: mbi@stoltseafarm.com Tel: +1 (416) 221-0404 ext. 235 Fax: +1 (416) 221-4010 All figures quoted in US$

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