Good stewards

Workers for the Harbour Authority of St. Lunaire are an environmentally sensitive lot.

You'd have to be while hauling millions of pounds of fresh shrimp and crab over the wharf annually.

But it was for their efforts in cleaning the harbour after a boat fire claimed the 65-foot Kailey Venture that the harbour authority was given the Environmental Stewardship Distinction Award at the annual conference in Gander on Oct. 21-23.

Program officer Don Sampson nominated the local authority for the efforts of Gilbert Burden and Paul Curtis.

Mary Bussey, harbour supervisor heading into her 19th season, said receiving the award was a great nod to the hard work of those two gentlemen.

"I was very, very excited," she said "I wasn't expecting it at all. It was tremendous to be recognized for doing something like that."

The work included cleaning the oil spilled from the vessel and beach cleaning.

"When they were trying to retrieve the boat, oil was coming out of her continuously," Ms. Bussey said. "So we had to put booms out to contain the oil, we had booms all around the wharf, and they had to do the shoreline, there was lots and lots of oil on the shoreline; they had to wash the rocks and make sure everything was picked up."

During the Gander seminar Mr. Sampson also presented a video depicting the fire, the subsequent cleanup and the inspection done by an environmental specialist.

"It's very important (to be environmentally sensitive)," Ms. Bussey said. "There's a lot of shrimp and crab landed here, and of course you don't want anything contaminated. If there's something in the water and you get it on the product it's ruined. In that year alone we landed 12 million pounds of product over the wharf. That year (2008) was a good year for us."

The Environmental Stewardship Distinction Award is in its second year; the first year of the award it was given to the Harbour Authority of Port Saunders.