#110 of 140 articles from the Special Report:
Food Insider
A Sawmill Bay fishing boat on the waters off Read Island in B.C. Photo courtesy of Sawmill Bay Shellfish
Steve Pocock used to rely on rainproof notebooks to count his oysters off Read Island, but recently he upgraded his operations to include tagging machines and a software program.
Pocock received funding from B.C.’s traceability program, which provides software programs to help businesses trace and track products through all levels of production. Knowing exactly where shellfish comes from is key to limiting food-borne illnesses and it smooths out seafood industry operations.
WHILE some the shark-tooth predators lurking off the Mackay Whitsunday coastline travel great distances to Bali and New Caledonia, many of them like to stay closer to home. Laura, Shayna, Jon, Alan and Gareth are ordinary names but they belong to some of the creatures being tracked in our ocean to collect more data. A data-centric organisation built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean has provided a rare insight into the movements of various sharks in our region. The satellite tracking website provides data on 16 tagged sharks in waters along the Whitsunday, Mackay and Isaac coasts including each shark s size, species and movements - including just how close they have come to our beaches and recreational areas.
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Subscriber only A SEVERED leg and foot with the boot still on - found in the belly of a huge shark - marked a gruesome end to the vicious attack of a dockworker in waters off Mackay. It was the night of August 26, 1935 and Patrick Quinn was working as a stevedore on the barge Terka to the cargo vessel Alynbank at Flat Top Island. The 38 year old was about to cross from one vessel to another when he fell overboard, and immediately grabbed a buoy that had been thrown to him. A boat was lowered and it had almost reached Quinn, who was clinging to a buoy, when suddenly he disappeared - his body was never recovered.