Port Hardy resident, Kelly Osborne, has been rewarded for his hard work and dedication to North Island communities during the 12th Annual BC Aquaculture Awards gala held last week in Campbell River. Osborne, a Production Manager at Marine Harvest Canada (MHC), was presented with the Outstanding Manager Performance Award.
Nominations were held on-line for 4 weeks and resulted in hundreds of well deserved candidates in seven separate categories. The Outstanding Manager Award saw twenty-one potential recipients of which three finalists were selected. Final nominees were selected by quality, then quantity of nominations.
In his 24th year working as a salmon farmer in BC, Osborne is now manager of several farms in the waters East of Port McNeill. One nomination highlighted Osborne’s strong commitment to ensuring the local community benefits from his farming operations. “He has worked very hard to ensure staff and contractors are recruited from local communities such as Alert Bay and Port McNeill, as well as helping foster new relationships by organizing several First Nation elders tours to visit his salmon farms,” one nomination stated.
“The Regional District of Mount Waddington is very pleased to see Marine Harvest focus on training and hiring local community members and it’s very nice to see employees like Kelly be rewarded for that commitment and effort,” commented Al Huddlestan, RDMW Chair.
Marine Harvest Canada was well represented in the other categories as well with runner ups in the Environment and Leadership categories. Runner up for the Environment Award was MHC’s Environmental Sustainability Manager, Sharon DeDominicis. Runner up for the Leadership Award was Jason Swartz, Site Manager at Hardwicke Island farm site.
The event is organized by Aquaculture Awareness, a grassroots group of industry suppliers and workers with a simple goal – to increase the awareness of BC’s aquaculture industries.
“I was really surprised to receive the award, because there are so many people in this business who are very deserving,” said Osborne upon receiving the award, “But I’m really honoured and the fact that it was my peers who recommended me makes it that much more special.”
Photo – Kelly Osborne (left) being presented the Outstanding Manager Performance Award from award sponsor Wade Kaskiw at AKVA Group North America.
Thanks to Ann Vansnick for organizing a March break get-away for some lucky Sayward Valley residents. A group of 11 local kids and parents visited Ann’s son, Mike Fitzgerald, who works at the Marine Harvest salmon farm just south of Hardwicke Island. The wide-eyed tourists were treated to a lunch which included some Hardy Buoys Candied Salmon Nuggets.
