First Nations Tribal Journeys | Standing Together 2017

Tribal Journeys to We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum 

First Nations Hosting Standing Together 2017

Public Security on McColl Magazine

STORY ANTHOLOGY

State-of-the-Art On-Site Net Washing Vessels

Two more On-site Net Washing Vessels joined the Badinotti fleet on the waters off North Vancouver Island in 2018, "We ordered two more vessels to work out of Port Hardy and Port McNeill in the waters of the Broughton Archipelago," says Kevin Onclin, CEO at Badinotti Net Services Canada Ltd.. On occasion they will be found on west coast of Vancouver Island.

The new acquisitions are made based on the performance of BRAVO II earlier this year. "BRAVO III and BRAVO IV will be the same design as the first vessel with the exception of some mainly cosmetic tweeking in the overall design," he says.

These vessels are delivered fully equipped at a cost of over $2 million each. The first arrived April 1, and the second arrived May 1, 2018. "These boats are operated by 3-man crews, and will be put into service 7 days a week. Each of these vessels has two crews working 7 days on and 7 days off or 8 days on and 6 days off."Crewing these vessels will not be a problem. We have recruitment underway and it means some new jobs for people qualified to operate with tickets for Under 15 Tonnes SVOP." The company has hired the odd 60 tonne skipper.

The vessels are designed to meet new demands for net cleaning in the oceans surrounding Vancouver Island. "They go out and clean nets. There is a huge demand for the these units since the farms sites require regular cleaning of their nets. The companies want to keep nets clean, and keep the fish swimming in clean water.

BACKGROUND
Badinotti Net Services Canada Ltd. in Campbell River, B.C., took possession of the first 40' catamaran, in January 2017, designed specifically to clean nets on the open sea. The Bravo II was the result of two years of research and planning based at Badinotti Net Services years of on-site net washing operations. "We were looking to custom build a boat for on-site net washing that would maximize the efficiencies for the machinery, equipment and crews," says Onclin.

The fleet of BRAVOs came out of a two-year project with concentrated planning and preparation. "We are very satisfied with the performance of the vessel. We selected a catamaran design to create a stable safe working platform for the crews and machinery including a crane, since most of the hours of operation occur at the farm sites as opposed to travelling to and from sites."

The BRAVO II is a 'cat' built by Armstrong Marine, Inc., which designs and builds a variety of welded aluminum boats in Port Angeles, Washington. "Armstrong Marine were selected primarily due to their expertise in catamaran construction."

Beginning in 2011 in B.C., the fish farming operations have been moving away from the use of antifouling paints (copper based) to keep the nets clean on fish farms. By 2017 most farm companies have completely eliminated the use of antifouling coatings from their operations. The traditional business model for the net service business, which relied upon dipping or coating of nets, had to adapt and reinvent operations to keep pace.

Badinotti Net Services wanted to provide eco-friendly methods to clean aquaculture nets on the west coast, allowing fish farmers to deploy clean and repaired nets for longer periods with no anti-foulant. The BRAVO II crews do not use anti-foulant or chemical cleaning of nets when at sea.

To provide optimum service in this changing market, Badinotti'snon-site net washing vessels are driven by two 480 horsepower diesel engines, moving from site-to-site at about 10 knots.

Badinotti Net Services added the department of On-Site Net Washing (OSW) over three years ago, "in order to respond to our customers new service requirements. On-site net washing we believe is a long term sustainable business model and although some farm companies are washing their own nets internally, for us, the OSW is our core business and focus. Consequently we believe we can deliver a cost effective service for the farm companies."

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Life In the Wind, a Musician, and a Tradesman (and an Artist)

Randy dabbles with paint as well

By the time Randy Dakota was well into his fifties, he had experienced the highs and the lows of life and come a long way to find the balance between. The highs came two ways, as a highly paid builder of infrastructure and professional pipefitter, as well as his skill as a musician playing in front of thousands of devoted fans. The lows found Randy living in streets (through two winters!) in Edmonton, Alberta, where his idea of home was found under a bridge or beneath a parking garage, where a feast became snared rabbit obtained in the river valley.

(“It is delicious!”) He made snares from broken guitar strings. He cooked rabbit over fire and on a barbeque. He used McDonald’s Restaurant condiments to spice up the meal.

Until landing in this peculiar estate, Randy was living a pure Canadian’s dream in Yellowknife, NWT, during the 1990s, earning large wages pipefitting for mining operations. On a given two-week break from the working life Randy would depart the north to join top-flight blues and country musicians to play lead or bass guitar and sing many of his own songs (for he is an accomplished songwriter). He played in Guam, Finland, and elsewhere in the world.

The life he made for himself in the north was percolating, and in it he was able to do most of what he wanted, including drugs and alcohol,. If life couldn’t get any better, well, a few turns of the screw would soon make it worse, then worse, then much, much worse progressively forming habits two or three. The slide onto an urban trap line began after his common-law wife in Yellowknife announced she was pregnant and hit him hard by announcing the child belonged to somebody else. This announcement caused him to depart job, city, and territory to live on the road.

He went south to find a band and live in a suitcase in hotels where he played across Canada. As time went by addiction grew into a ticking time bomb that threatened to blow away everything. And blow it did on New Year’s Eve in the year 2000 when a crisis occurred. They played in the band for the promise of a large New Year’s Eve paycheque and after the event members of the band awoke to find cheques that were worthless, while the leader of the band stole the entire hotelier’s payment. This loss was doubled by the tragic reaction of a close friend and band member when friend and fellow musician met desperation and betrayal by committing suicide.

Randy looks back and sees the picture clearly today, but at the time it was incomprehensible. Randy’s mental outlook sank into depression, which he vividly recalls was triggered by, “doubting if my dream of a life in music was anything but a nightmare.” His own crushing depression ensued and Randy decided to ‘step off’ stage. He abandoned the musical profession by selling an expensive set of Stratocaster guitars and amplifiers and all of his equipment and divesting of other worldly possessions. He checked out of society, not in stages, but like it was some kind of hotel; he left all at once. He leapt full-time into a life of triple addiction and burned through his will chasing cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.

He played a battered guitar on the mean street corners, and in the underground stations of Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit system, and arranged himself a cost-efficient accommodation under a bridge (says he became a troll), and later, a parking garage under the high-priced real estate of the valley, and got wrecked on everything he could lay his hands on while enduring all-Canadian seasons in the bare comfort of whatever hovel he managed to scrape together.

Perhaps the lonely years spent in hotels as a musician had equipped him for such a crash. At first he depended on friends by sleeping on their couches and supplying them with a share of the drugs, and as the clock turned backwards and backwards the need for drugs grew more selfish, and, as the rapidity of progression into addiction increased to terminal velocity he was mainly left alone to face his demons or escape them by getting smashed.

The 1990s became a faded memory of moments of glory on stage and a terrible sadness found in between. Life became an uphill struggle, trudging every step to the next, spending it all if possible within an inescapable ‘maze’ of addiction. Music has been a driving force in Randy’s life, “It is genetic,” ascribing this inheritance to Métis heritage, as he later learned, “My mother’s brother was a gifted player,” who became well known in Winnipeg as a singer songwriter and guitar player.

He learned about this lineage later in life, where he came from, including that his great grandfather had been Canadian voyageur, a courier de bois (runner of the woods). “I saw a picture of him and asked my grandmother why he had crease marks on his forehead and sides of his face. She told me the markings came from pulling York Boats upstream,” from the leather strapping to pull heavy watercraft upstream and portage over land. This true Manitoban Canadian had earned these distinctive facial markings by the work he did for the Hudson’s Bay Company. He carried mercantile trading goods from Winnipeg to Norway House and back, one long arduous voyage every year.

It turned out Randy has the purest form of Western Canadian heritage there is. Important details like family history were missing from his youth, by the fact he was adopted out by his biological mother, whom he did not meet until he was 37 old. And the close relationship with an adoptive family was interrupted by the period spent snaring rabbits in Edmonton’s river valley, and, before that, addictive behaviour.

Randy was raised by adoption into a family, and this wasn’t half bad. “My father gave me a trade as a pipefitter. He taught me a lot,” and was always generous to his adoptive son. His mother could not have children so they adopted Randy and his sister. It had been a normal childhood spent in a family environment and he felt nurtured far more than deprived, it was a good family environment and he feels he was blessed by it.

Later the nurturing away from addiction came from detox facilities and treatment centres and creating art as therapy, and the 12 step program that helped him to fill his medicine pouch used to form a powerful spiritual foundation, including later a faith in the Living God, his Higher Power.  SEE Angelique Merasty Levac