Spirit Bears are a N.W. Pacific phenomenon

 

Image by Ben Robinson 

Diving industry beckons potential employees

At the Canadian Working Divers Institute in Northern Ontario, Gordon Hay and team teaches divers to be the world-class Unrestricted Surface-Supplied Divers in demand around the country in various kinds of industrial scenarios, from energy sector, to municipal services, to coastal aquaculture operations (three coasts).

“We condensed a nine month training program into 12 weeks of intensive training. It runs 12 hours a day, six days a week,” explains Hays, “which is better for the people wanting this kind of career development.” Diving is a job for people willing to do the work as jack-of-all-trades underwater, he says. They may be employed in the energy sector in the Beaufort Sea, or aquaculture on any of the three coasts in Canada. It could take them anywhere in the world,” he says, “Training occurs near Chapleau on Lake Borden, “The work takes people across the country and around the world.”

The training institute runs one course per year for up to 30 students. “We supply room and board from August 7th to about November 1, and train them to a standard that exceeds all other diving training standards in the world, preparing personnel for jobs in the Arctic Ocean, Beaufort Sea, Hibernia oil field, Great Lakes, or anywhere else.” According to Hays, “There is room in the industry for more skilled people. Average age is around 24, but we get students from ages 18 to 40 and up. Our training is surface supply level, making it certified for deeper diving and using more tools underwater. info@canadianworkingdivers.com

Kelly Korol runs Dive Safe commercial diving school in Campbell River, B.C., and says diving training is proving to be a good fit in First Nations communities, divers working in places like Klemtu and on the other side of Vancouver Island at Ahousaht. "We are a trade school teaching commercial diving that leads to employment in a variety of areas, especially sea food harvesting and aquaculture," says Korol. "Diving for urchins in various waters and one student is currently training to be able to harvest goeduck in Ahousaht.

Korol says, "Bands have access to fisheries and licenses and where the community has nothing else going on, diving and using the commercial diving skills from training can lead to employment where you are at home every night with the wife and kids, gainful employment close to home. When the weather is bad, you don't go diving, when the weather is good, you're working in aquaculture site work, or harvesting urchins, scallops, and we train the divers for commercial fisheries and aquaculture.

"We have a couple students from the Hakai Institute, north of Rivers Inlet," (programs at the institute are conducted by partner institutions such as the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Northern British Columbia). "Our training enables students to conduct underwater scientific diving studies and other employment is found working in environmental assessments."

Korol is enthusiastic about a current training program he is preparing to deliver to Nunavut, "on clam digging underwater. First Nation and Inuit people have huge pristine clam beds, and we are working out details to deliver training there," and, he notes, "It's a case again of First Nations returning to work in traditionlal lands to fill a huge demand for the resources. The guys here on the west coast and making a living harvesting sea urchin and goeduck, sea cucumbers, and it's filling the demand in the Asian market."

On the recreational side of diving, he notes, "B.C. is cold water diving at its best in the world, strong currents and clear water lots of life on the bottom when you get down there. You see all kinds of activity." Dive safe runs training courses throughout the year, "We do two courses. One is a five-week scuba curse, and the other is a seven-week surface supply course. Surface supply diving is safer and certain kinds of seafood harvests require you to be wearing weighted surface supply gear, to keep you on the bottom while you pick the geoduck off the floor by the neck. It's seven weeks to finish the surface supply course." Aquaculture work is mostly done by scuba trained and equipped divers. Surface supply diving takes longer to learn use of power tools underwater, or welding, and surface supply diving is used on pressure washing boats of marine equipment underwater.

 

The maintenance of a fish farm is a constant undertaking, underwater, with specific demands by industry, government, and society that are met by specialized outfits like Seaveyors Environmental and Marine Services Ltd., of Courtenay B.C. Canada. Darren Horler is owner of the company started in 2006 to do the work for a thriving aquaculture economy. net pen inspections and environmental monitoring using rov anchoring systems current

"We dive with a minimum two divers on inspection teams, sometimes three, and every situation is unique. Before each dive we come up with the plan. Most aquaculture related dives occur in fairly protected waters, and the teams work around the metal and steel frame net pens, inspecting nets and anchoring systems on a scheduled basis, as well as on-call inspections." Seaveyors is fully equipped with technology-laden water craft and equipment, "a big investment into the industry." He explains, "I am running the operations with eight professionals on staff, including our divers and a biologist to do certified Environmental inspection services."

 

"We are more than a dive contractor. We are working on top the water a lot, and we do specialized environmental contracting, and I like to think we have top skills with the equipment, but it's a small circle in this industry, and I know everybody personally. It's a tight ship in the underwater surveys industry, and there is a lot of competency. We do all waters, deep sea up to creek habitat."

The company is employed in environmental monitoring, "We get into a lot of third party work that comes from the demand for reports that are submitted to government," says Horler. His company's biology department has done all kinds work in the different Pacific species, commercial and environmental reports on things like goeduck, herring spawn, surveys, urchins, and a tremendous variety of other diving studies and reports made into databases. Reporting is done in many instances for DFO, especially since a transition in coast aquaculture industry report from provincial to federal jurisdiction about a year ago. Meanwhile the diving industry is a growing employment opportunity, "Definitely there are opportunities to get into the business of diving." The schools on the west coast have curriculum and certification level courses at the scuba-level and restricted diving level, which qualifies the graduates with Worksafe BC credentials for work in these kinds of marine services.

BC College of Diving principle Cory Beaudry knows a lot about the province of B.C. below the water line, all across the province and up and down the coast. "We teach unrestricted scuba and my experience with commercial diving begins 21 yrs ago, and I began the company Camcor Diving 19 years ago, and  opened the BC College of Diving in 2004, in Sidney BC." The college, which normally averages three courses per year is this year running two courses, one in the spring another in the fall. "The Unrestricted Scuba course is five weeks.  

This year's spring and fall courses will be done at the facility in Sidney and in the surrounding ocean waters. They find areas to practice in the 40 metres required to obtain the certification. When done, in his experience on the coastal operation of Camcor Diving, "the main work is aquaculture site maintenance  diving  in and around the net pens. Another coastal employment from the course is found in seafood harvesting, urchins, goeduck, sea cucumbers. His own company engages 14 full-time divers, "all on aquaculture."

Years ago fish farming maintenance was done by fish farmers themselves, and a lot of maintenance went by the way-side, then as the fish farms became advanced industrialized operations. Open-water certification programs highlight diving physiology, safe diving practices, and diving hazards,  Beaudry notes that diving demands a certain physiology that becomes apparent in the training stages. 

His business is into diving at fish farms, gaining a career worth of expertise on the maintenance of a fish farm. "It is highly specialized diving and I have been working at it 21 years. In fact, my Operations Manager trained me in the aquaculture diving industry and he has 30 years experience in the fish farming industry. Dives on farm sites are on average on average 70  to 90 feet, to do net pen inspection for DFO, mortality diving, underwater construction of new sites, each of which are anchored with weight systems to prevent billowing from currents, and invasions by sea lions and other predators."

Farms sites on the ocean receive scheduled maintenance, new constructions are done to install or move sites. The waters vary, and in fact, up north the diving gets to be some crazy stuff. Experience really counts in a hazardous environment like deepwater diving. In fact, BC College of Diving has a prerequisite that states all course entrants must have been a recreational diver with over 10 hours bottom time and a WCB Divers medical. He has seen people from a wide range of ages, "We had a  woman 57 old in the training, and we recently had a Haisla member, Dennis Robinson, 54, take the course.

In training, as on the job, "I hold safety above all," says Beaudry. I am a CSA Dive committee member, and I am on the Diver Certification Board of Canada, and obtained a certain amount of recognition among colleagues. camcordiving@telus.net

Pacific Northwest economy developing many new directions

The Pacific Northwest of Canada is an area with a stake in the economy held by First Nations, so it’s a far cry from the economic marginalization of remote communities in northern Ontario and northern Manitoba. It may closer resemble developments ascribed to James Bay on the Quebec side. Business development in the Northwest Pacific runs the gamut from coastal marine-oriented enterprise in emerging industrial and infrastructure operations, to small businesses creating dozens of forestry jobs, to long-standing companies hiring out of local indigenous populations that have recovered a lot of rights and titles in the territory.

Port services are expanding in the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C., by a tripartite business venture with Island Tug and Barge, Metlakatla, and Lax Kw’alaams First Nations. Ryan Leighton, Director of Operations for the Metlakatla Development Corporation (MDC) stated, “There is a multitude of different opportunities we are looking at a variety of commercial activities.” John Lindsay,  ITB vice president and general manager, recently confirms the company is proceeding to establish infrastructure and move equipment to Prince Rupert.

Leighton says, “We are involved regionally and going to grow. Barge services up here provide essential fuel, materials, supplies, everything right down to garbage remediation, and our services will extend as far North as Alaska.” Lindsay says, “It is a fully equipped marine services company in a hot area of economic development.” He noted last year that the Port of Prince Rupert is undergoing all kinds of expansion to meet the shipping demands of commodity sectors like coal, potash, and other export minerals. 

Clayton Burger is a Northwest Pacific businessman and highly experienced tree faller from Iskut, B.C., who took skills with a chain saw around the province. After 20 years as a faller, “I worked for a short time as a foreman for logging outfit, which proved to be excellent preparation to start my own business.” His company, Edziza Contracting is entering the third year operating out of Terrace, B.C..

Edziza teams of fallers work as far as Columbia Valley on a transmission line job. They work falling contracts in Alberta, and Dawson Creek, B.C., and currently, “Right where we are on the Northern Transmission Line project north of Terrace.” For his crews, falling and slashing is the game, “Line cutting, right-of-way, seismic,  oilfield line, pipeline, routes cut to make trails for industry, or government contracts.” 

On the NTL side, “We started the project last fall with All-North Consulting, and we’ve been working with McElhanney ever since on the survey job at NTL.” He worked in Nisga’a Nation to run a training course on chain-saw experienced people with no tickets. “We get them out and prepare them, then they can pass the tests to be certified fallers in the region.”

Bear Creek Contracting works in the Pacific Northwest, with a head office in Terrace, B.C.. Mike Edwards, Health and Safety Manager, has a host of responsibilities in human resources, and says, “Bear Creek Contracting is a family-run business, originally in logging and now engaged in all kinds of construction. “We specialize in ‘early works’ and ground works on utility projects, road construction, and other infrastructure. We have 150 on the payroll right now.” Furthermore, “We are operating a limited partnership with Haisla First Nation where we hire lots of people and do training and certification for a lot of new personnel being recruited in Kitimat area.”

HBO/Bear Creek Contracting limited partnership is run by Clarence Nice in Kitimaat Village. Edwards says, “This partnership opened a lot of doors for us, and we found great workers and great people by establishing the partnership. We had important conversations about building our workforce.  We now have a new pool of people trained and employed as excavator and machine operators, truck drivers, labourers, and other jobs in road construction on projects like Kitimat LNG,” the infrastructure project to ship natural gas from Canada.

The largest forestry tender holder in Haida Gwaii is looking to sell a particular form of log suitable for the B.C. power transmission system. The Skidegate Band Council of the Haida Nation (Queen Charlotte Islands) has put together an proposal to develop forestry resources under their aegis in the Haida Gwaii.  Chief Bob Mills, head of the Skidegate Band Council, explains, "We're working on leading projects based in ownership of the largest forestry tenure on Haida Gwaii. They are Skidegate Band initiatives to put some of our people in skilled positions at work that comes out of our forests, and for the Band to make some money."

The priority is training crews to work at log prepping sites using newly acquired  equipment to strip poles and prepare logs for the power pole market in B.C.. It involves the preparation of cedar poles by machine peeling the bark and putting the logs to market to corporations like BC Hydro and Fortis. “We understand there is a big demand for this and we can make money. We believe the Haida brand should be appealing." The poles will be shipped by barge to Vancouver.

The chief says, "De-barking occurs using expensive machinery that we are buying in the USA. Council member Billy Obonovich is spearheading the project. He obtained the debarking machine from a company in the USA. Training from NWCC comes with classroom and hands-on learning, time indoors followed by outdoor training toward certification in chain saw safety and machine operations. Timing of the training is arranged to precede the machine setup. There is a representative from the machine company to do operational training of the crew."

David Garrick's study of CMTs on the west coast of Canada, Broughton Archipelago

A Firewood CMT

In the days prior to the Industrial Revolution First Nations built canoes to travel the extensive waterways of the Pacific coast. Each dugout canoe was manufactured out of a single cedar tree and these dugout war canoes were designed for ocean voyages of long duration.

Sometimes during these journeys canoeists ran afoul of the weather. The water on the Inside Passage is a reasonably constant 6 or 7 degrees Celsius but the weather varies and rainfall is a potential threat all year long, especially from October to March. Dealing with these wet conditions called for planning, which included the invention of the 'firewood CMT,' a form of culturally modified tree (CMT) found on remote islands and inlets of the Pacific Coast of Canada.

"Knowledge of the history of forest use is crucial for understanding the development of forests, which in turn helps to understand how societies react to forest development," said Rikard Andersson, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. "Culturally modified trees (CMTs), recorded in the western U.S. (and Canada), northern Scandinavia, and south-eastern Australia, are features that can be dated precisely, and they bear witness to unique events of human activity."

David Garrick is a Canadian anthropologist with specific expertise in CMTs in west coast rainforests. "These artefacts define the First Nations communities in a practical way. They had camps all over the place, often at the mouth of a river. If they were taking a three-day voyage by canoe and it started raining they would pull out of the water, but how would you start a fire?"

An essential CMT would be found ashore where they could and often did make land and find the firewood CMT, each site containing a dry source of wood. The travelers would find a small cavern dug above the roots inside a massive cedar tree trunk. "They would peel shreds of the dry cedar found inside the hollowed trunk and they would ignite a fire inside the tree."

These firewood CMTs were commonplace, "There's one found at every encampment." Garrick has studied these peculiar modifications from Banks Island all the way to Kitkatla. He and others have found abundant evidence of a kindling source that provided instant fire to travelers. For the past three decades David Garrick concentrated on the study of humans interacting in forests on the Pacific Coast.

He found a perfect place to do CMT research on Hanson Island, about 15 km south west of Alert Bay, B.C.. He set up the Earth Embassy in the heights of the 4 sq. km. island and he worked under the auspices of the Yukusem Heritage Society (composed of four First Nations from the Broughton Archipelago and Johnstone Strait).

"If you keep the ecosystem intact it becomes a living laboratory and a living museum, and a living classroom." For further study, "We have a post-secondary learning opportunities in the area. We have trails into all kinds of nooks and crannies on Hanson Island."

Garrick's laboratory on Hanson Island has been a welcome presence in the First Nations of coastal B.C. because his research provides a good history lesson about cedar usage in the culture and economy of the people. For instance a 'core-popped' cedar tree looks like a traumatic injury to those who pass by, but core-popping was no problem to First Nations, instead, it was a marker of time, "What happened to the cedar tree core was caused by a memorable event like a potlatch."

First Nation forest use went into a state of chaos for a period after contact with Europeans and the anthropology is specific about describing the trauma, "After epidemics reduced the population of Indigenous people, you see the sickness of the people reflected in the cedar peelings. Suddenly there are one-tenth the number of people available to peel cedar tree bark or cultivate and harvest other plants in the cedar groves."

Garrick's work will continue on Hanson Island where he has equipped others to teach everyone from small groups of First Nation students to the First Nation CMT researchers who identify the evidence of occupation and prior use in traditional territories. He maintained beautiful gardens at the Earth Embassy and he had members of the multi-nation Society trained to cut and maintains trails to the instructive cedar groves that will stand in perpetuity on Hanson Island.


Freelance Writing by Mack McColl in 2009