MHC Newsletter June 2015

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
[email protected]
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
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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.
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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
facebook.com/MHCanada
MarineHarvest.ca
bit.ly/MHCanada