First Nations work for Seaspan in positions, “across the whole fleet, captains, mates, deck hands,” and logs moved by Seaspan come from First Nation forestry operations more and more on the west coast, “It’s changing,” says Mcgee, “It used to be the big forestry companies. Now First Nations and a lot of smaller companies are brokering wood and moving logs to market.”
Seaspan makes direct contact with First Nations or intermediaries to market fibre, “A company like John Mohammed’s A & A Trading hires us to move the wood that is owned by First Nations Nuxalk Nation and Klahoose First Nation.” Other things have changed with Seaspan, “We used to be in log towing by log boom, but now we operate log barges, three of them, moving logs, and chip scows to barge chips to pulp mills.”
Safety comes first in the business of moving logs at Seaspan. “It looks simple but there are no second chances. We find various levels of safety on the docks are facilities that we visit, but the big companies like ourselves put in tons of training and adhere to the highest standards. It varies and we are more vigilant in some of the local pick-ups.
A run from Vancouver to Anchorage for example is a 10-day round trip. Nanaimo to Port Alberni is a 36 hour voyage. Seaspan log barges have a crew of six, four working at a time (two on respite). The crews are flown in and out. The personnel are machine experienced employees receiving good pay and good tme-out periods. “Our crews are ‘crane-safe’ operators working on our three barges. The loads are 600 to 700 truck-loads per barge on the biggest vessel. It takes about eight to 12 hours to load.”
The dump sites are usually on the Fraser River, or as they say in the industry, ‘The River,’ including Haney, and Riverview, and in the New Westminster log sorting ground. Seaspan discharges on both dock and into the river. Howe Sound used to be a area of intense log sort activity but that is no longer the case, although logs continue to be discharged there, with a lot of chips delivered to Howe Sound Pulp and Paper.
Other sites for discharge include Ladysmith Harbour and Bernice Arm, and Nanaimo as well, especially when shipments are destined for Asian markets. Seaspan's Log Barge Division employs 16.