Diving incident triggers stop-work orders

Cleanup effort continues, however, of died-off farmed Atlantic salmon on the south coast

The Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) Division of Service NL on the weekend issued two stop-work orders on diving operations at the Northern Harvest Sea Farms cleanup site — one to the principal contractor and one to Strickland's Diving.

The cleanup is ongoing as a result of a recent massive die-off of penned salmon.

The stop-work orders came as a result of an incident involving a diver at the site on Saturday. The diver had to be airlifted to hospital in St. John’s for treatment.

OHS officers remain on the site investigating.

A news release distributed on behalf of Northern Harvest Sea Farms on Monday stated the company does not employ divers as staff, but does engage thirdparty dive service companies to perform needed dive work.

One of those service companies has advised Northern Harvest Sea Farms of a matter requiring the involvement of the province’s occupational health and safety authority, and diver operations have been temporarily halted to investigate, the release stated.

“In order to work for Northern Harvest Sea Farms, dive service contractors are required to adhere to CSA standards regarding diver safety and practices,” the release states. “Northern Harvest Sea Farms’ health and safety officer continues to work with the third-party company and the provincial occupational health and safety authority in investigating this matter.

“Cleanup activity can continue despite dive activity being temporarily stopped.”