MNR vessels being built in Wheatley

[Spiel]

MNR vessels being built in Wheatley

 

 

January 23, 2010

PAT BAILEY, QMI AGENCY / www.chathamdailynews.ca

 

 

While many companies are feeling the effects of the economic downturn, Hike Metal is abuzz with work on its latest project -a $4.35-million contract for two new vessels for the Ministry of Natural Resources.

 

Thursday, Hike Metal owner Andy Stanton showed off the works in progress.

 

One of the vessels is nearing the stage where it can be primed and moved outdoors; the other is still in its infancy.

 

Stanton said the two new 20-metre vessels, constructed of 40 tons of steel with Caterpillar diesel 340-horsepower engines, will translate into about 15,000 in man hours for his employees, as well as sub-contractors.

 

And for the MNR, it means they will have their first two vessels designed and built to their specifications to handle fisheries' assessment and ecosystem monitoring on Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, as well as meeting Transport Canada's safety standards.

 

The three vessels in the current fleet are old fishing tugs adapted for their use, said John Cooper of the Great Lakes Branch of the MNR. He said the new vessels, which will be painted green and white, will allow a crew of two to six people to conduct their fisheries work, including gill netting, trawling and nighttime hydroacoustic work.

 

Cooper said they will do assessments on specific species, such as salmon, lake trout, walleye and whitefish for ecosystem monitoring and commercial and sport fishing fisheries' management.

 

With commercial fishing accounting for $200 million a year and sport fishing bringing in $450 million a year, Cooper said it is important to continue to monitor the changes within the ecosystems annually.

 

And Cooper said with the completion of the two newest vessels, i t will mean the MNR will have at least one vessel on each of the Great Lakes. Especially import a nt, s a i d Cooper, is that Ontario will now have its own vessels designed specifically for such tasks.

 

Cooper said previously they have had to rely on the use of U.S. equipment to aid in their assessments.

 

Cooper said the vessels are expected to be completed and in the water this summer, undergoing extensive sea trials-and ready for use in the spring of 2011.

 

Stanton said the tender was awarded a year ago and work began on the first vessel at the end of March.

 

Tony Thompson, naval architect and president of EYE Marine Consultants of Dartmouth, NS, said he began work designing these vessels in 2004. He said the project was then shelved. In 2008, he said the project was put back on the table so he did some fine tuning and updating on the plans he had begun four years earlier.

 

Thompson said there were definite advantages of awarding the tender to Hike Metal, over the two competing bids.

 

"Hike Metal has probably built more fishing tugs than anyone out there," he said. "They know what works."

 

"It's tremendously beneficial to work with experienced builders," he added.

 

While they are similar to fishing tugs in many respects, Thompson said the greatest difference is in stability.

 

And, he said, by awarding the project to a company so knowledgeable in the construction of fishing tugs it has helped them overcome some of the challenges they have faced.

 

For Stanton, it is one more type of vessel in his growing portfolio that has helped establish the Wheatley-based firm as one of the premier companies of its kind in North America.