MarineHarvestCanada.com

Wharfside In This IssueCompany Supports Recommended Wild Salmon Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A Taste of BC: a Hole in the Ground to Recirculating Aquaculture System . . . . . . 2

The Dream of a Four Year Old comes True . . 3

And the Scholarship Goes to . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Santa’s coming to Port Hardy & Campbell River! . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Glen’s BrainSafe Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Tanks a Lot! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Little Fry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A Net Gain for Union Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Drive is Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

December 2012

CANADA

Did you Know?Our eyes remain the same size from birth, but our ears and nose never stop growing.

Trivia time!Who is the only actor to receive an

Academy Award nomination (acting-related) for any Star Wars film?

Answer on Page 4

MerryChristmas!

Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) is looking

forward to continuing important wild salmon

research in the Discovery Islands area, and is

pleased to see the Cohen Inquiry’s final report

reinforces this vision.

The Cohen Commission of Inquiry recently

concluded a three year investigation into the

decline of Fraser River sockeye, presenting

his 75 recommendations to the Canadian

government. While global warming and

fisheries management were highlighted in the

report as most serious concern to the future

sustainably of the Fraser River sockeye, the

recommendations also included a request for

additional fish health data from government

hatcheries and wild salmon migrating through

the Discovery Islands area.

While Justice Bruce Cohen complimented

BC salmon farmers on their extensive and

comprehensive fish health data, he did raise

concern about the lack of wild salmon health

data needed to confirm what was evidenced in

the Inquiry - that BC’s farm-raised salmon are

healthy and have had no negative impact on

Fraser River sockeye.

“In 2010, Marine Harvest, the Pacific Salmon

Foundation and Fisheries and Oceans Canada

partnered to begin research into wild salmon

health and migratory patterns in the Discovery

Islands area,” says Clare Backman, Director

of Sustainable Programs at MHC. “We look

forward to expanding on our past support to

further research into the baseline health of wild

salmon and the potential interactions with our

salmon farms.”

For additional information, please see the

following release from the BC Salmon Farmers

Association - http://www.salmonfarmers.org/

salmon-farmers-support-cohen-commission-

report

Company Supports Recommended Wild Salmon Research

MarineHarvestCanada.com

In the late 1990s, preacher Steve Atkinson

removed gravel from his newly acquired

property on Jameson Road in Nanaimo. The

deep hole that remained figuratively and

literally spawned an idea – fill it with water

and fish.

Steve approached Vancouver Island

University’s (VIU) Fisheries and Aquaculture

faculty to buy some trout, and they

introduced him to staff at Marine Harvest

Canada (MHC).

And so began Steve’s career in aquaculture.

Dr. Andrew Forsythe, MHC’s Freshwater

Director at that time, encouraged Steve,

also a trained chef, to purchase farm-raised

Chinook from the company for smoking.

“My involvement in fish farming began with

Marine Harvest when I started smoking and

selling salmon at the Tsawwassen, Swartz Bay

and Nanaimo Ferry Terminals,” Steve recalls,

“and it was a great success and expanded to

markets in China.”

At the time, small amounts of trout, salmon

and sturgeon were being successfully raised

at his homestead and this led to another great

idea. Steve, Andrew and Wayne Gorrie at PR

Aqua Supplies Ltd. realized that the spring

fed rural property would be a prime spot

for a “model farm” - a place where nearby

students could receive ‘hands on’ fish farming

experience as well as providing a research

and development facility for PR Aqua.

When Steve sold his smoked salmon stores

in 2008, he worked to make the ‘model farm’

dream a reality and searched for private and

government funding.

His efforts paid off.

This year, the federal government’s

Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access

Program announced its commitment to

partially fund a 100 tonne recirculating

aquaculture system (RAS) at the property.

The 1.4 million dollar facility has also

received public and private funding including

support from the Province’s Agriculture

Innovation Fund, the National Research

Council, the Interprovincial Partnership

for Sustainable Freshwater Aquaculture

Development, PR Aqua, VIU and MHC.

Construction is now underway and “Taste of

BC” will produce 2 kilogram steelhead trout

for local markets starting in 2013.

Steve is very thankful for the help he’s

received from Marine Harvest. “Without

the help of people like Dr. Forsythe, Dave

Ashcroft and Philip Redmond, I wouldn’t

have been able to make the transition to

aquaculture,’ Steve says and adds, smiling,

“these people have also become friends.”

“I’m a chef by trade, preacher by profession

and fish farmer by default,” Steve says with a

laugh.

2

A Taste of BC: a Hole in the Ground to Recirculating Aquaculture System

Taste of BC owner Steve Atkinson stands in front of tanks donated by Marine Harvest

Construction begins at the 100 tonne recirculating aquaculture system near Nanaimo

MarineHarvestCanada.com 3

The Dream of a Four Year Old comes True

And the Scholarship Goes to...

By Gina Forsyth

Craig Sherman was only four years old when he knew what his future would hold. He and his family were living in New Brunswick when he went fishing with his dad. “That experience made me realize I wanted to work with fish,” said the Site Manager of Potts Bay.

Although Craig was born in Calgary, Alberta, “I was raised all over Canada,” he explained. After high school in Ontario, Craig enrolled in the three-year Fish and Wildlife Technologist diploma program in Sault St. Marie. Craig made the move to BC in 1986 and began his aquaculture career on the Sunshine Coast, just north of Vancouver.

“The aquaculture industry was on fire then,” he said. Craig’s first industry job was at Aquarius Seafarms. He also worked for the former BC Packers, and other companies, eventually settling on Saltspring Island from 1993 to 2005 for Marine Harvest. “We did a lot of community outreach and changed a lot of minds on the island about salmon farming.”

In the summer of 2004, Craig worked on the north coast, in Klemtu, as the first manager

of Goat Cove. He was also instrumental in the start up of Kid Bay. The following year, Craig made the move to the Campbell River region, managing Young Pass and Brougham. In the last couple of months, he’s started at Potts Bay, which he’s really enjoying.

“Most of all I enjoy helping people learn and develop and move onto management positions.”

Craig and his wife Diane have two adult children, both girls. Not surprisingly, Craig loves fly fishing in his leisure time, and has been tying his own flies for more than 35 years.

FAR RIGHT PHOTOMarine Harvest’s Human Resources Director, Dean Dobrinsky, and his daughter Chloe were at North Island College last month to present Ian Betts with the Bob Minkler Memorial Bursary.

PHOTODeniz Akin (right), Fisheries and Aquaculture student at Vancouver Island University, was pleased to accept the Marine Harvest Salmon Aquaculture Scholarship from Ian Roberts, MHC’s Communications Manager.

Site Manager Craig Sherman

MarineHarvestCanada.com

Marine Harvest staff and family are invited to join Santa at the following events:

Campbell RiverWhen: Saturday, December 22nd from 9am to 11am Where: Ballroom at the Anchor Inn (261 Island Highway)

You and your family are invited to have ‘Breakfast with Santa’. There will be gifts for children 12 years of age and younger so please inform us of your

child’s name, gender and age when you RSVP.

Please RSVP by December 13th to Stephaney Van Acken at Stephaney.VanAcken@marineharvest.com or call 250-850-3276 (extension 0).

Port Hardy

When: Saturday, December 8th from 1pm to 3pm

Where: Port Hardy Processing Plant (7200 Coho Road)

Join us for a ‘Kids Christmas Party’.

Meet Santa, enjoy a bounce-a-rama, try the snowboard/skate board

machine and other fun games and prizes.

Please RSVP by December 8th to Tina Garlinski-Gonsky at Tina.Gonsky@

marineharvest.com or call 250-949-9448 (extension 2251).

When: Friday December 21st at noonWhere: Port Hardy Processing Plant

Join us for a catered lunch, great door prizes and Secret Santa.

All staff are welcome – RSVP not required. If you are interested in joining the ‘Secret Santa’ please sign up at the Plant’s office.

**A reminder that PHPP is also gathering food items for the hamper drive. For every food item donation, the donator can enter to win a fabulous prize.

4 Answer: Sir Alec Guinness, Obi-Wan Kenobi

Santa’s coming to Port Hardy

& Campbell River!

MarineHarvestCanada.com 5

The other day at work, I was trying to remember the four ‘Brain Facts’ I learned at the BrainSafe Course.

I quickly remembered the brain uses energy and if I eat four slices of toast the brain uses one.

I remembered the brain creates habits to save energy. We operate from habits 99.7% of the time.

A few minutes later I remembered the brain has a limited attention span, with 1850 sensory info bits coming in every 1/18 of a second, and only processing 0.3% of it. The brain prioritizes its sorting based upon DIPI (dangerous, important, pleasurable, interesting) criteria.

An hour later I was going to repair the air compressor and I pulled out my Eye-Check book to do a risk assessment, and that is when I remembered the fourth BrainSafe fact. That is, our caveman brains are adapted for simple environments. We are not used to hidden energies and as a rule we function best at 1.8 miles per hour.

Now, if only I can remember why I wanted to remember those facts.

Glen’s BrainSafe Corner

Mackenzie Stephanie Stalker was born October 30th at 9:40 am at a weight of 3.444 kg and 51 centimeters in length. Proud parents Jason and Lee Stalker are apparently insisting she learn the metric system to the 1000th decimal place. Jason is MHC’s Harvest Manager.

Cecilia Plecas and Ben Schoenfelder had a baby boy November 9th. Trace Alexander Schoenfelder arrived at 9:31 pm weighing in at 7.5 lbs. Both Ben and Cecilia work for MHC.

Little Fry

Campbell River Curling Club and ice maker, Terry Kratzmann, would like to thank Marine Harvest for the donation of an 800 gallon stainless steel holding tank. The tank allowed Terry to put together a water treatment system to produce “WEST COAST GLACIER ICE”.

Without the donation from Marine Harvest it would have made it cost prohibitive to complete this project.

“On behalf of the Curling Club and all its members, they would like to thank Marine Harvest for its generosity.”

Terry Kratzmann (left) with Marine Harvest’s Joe Johnson

By Glen Molland

Tanks a Lot!

MarineHarvestCanada.com6

bit.ly/MHCanadatwitter.com/MHCanada facebook.com/MHCanada

A Net Gain for Union Bay

Please email comments, articles and ideas to Ian Roberts, Communications Manager at ian.roberts@marineharvest.com

Comments about this Newsletter?

Riley McFadyen, MHC site manager, was

instrumental in helping the Union Bay

Ball Field Association outfit the local

baseball park with protective netting.

The netting was donated by Marine

Harvest and installed by Riley and

other local volunteers from the softball

league. Apparently Riley is a heavy hitter,

so drivers should now feel much safer

driving by the field!

Local food banks are especially taxed during the

holiday season and each year Marine Harvest

assists them in filling the shelves. The Senior

Management Team has committed to match

(up to $1500) all staff donations of food items

or cash. The River Relief Truck (99.7 FM) is

accepting donations in early December, so please

donate quickly. Stephanie Van Acken (front desk

at Campbell River office) is accepting cash and

food items now. Remember, all donations will be

matched by MHC (up to $1500) and delivered to

the River Relief Truck by mid-December.

The Drive is Alive