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Welcome to this week’s Midweek Memo, brought to you by the Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST). In this issue, discover which world-famous gaming giant might be expanding in Victoria, what company just won a prestigious global award, and learn how to hyperscale your organization.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 827 words: a three-minute read.

-Kate Wilson, @KateWilsonSays

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Oceantech to help the salmon

Two Campbell River-based organizations, Poseidon Ocean Systems and Mowi Canada West, have teamed up in the name of fish welfare.

Poseidon is an aquaculture company that specializes in the design, manufacturing, and installation of ocean-based technologies. Its products provide sustainable and eco-friendly solutions for fish farming operations worldwide.

Mowi runs a number of salmon farms across Vancouver Island, and is using Poseidon's creations to reduce interactions between its farm-raised fish and their wild cousins.

In its efforts to reduce contact with the surrounding environment, Mowi’s farm is now equipped with tech including with 15-meter-deep barrier shields, perimeter air bubble curtains, oxygen systems, and real-time environmental monitoring technology to ensure conditions are best for salmon growth. The companies say that the physical and bubble barriers, along with Poseidon’s cutting-edge oxygen systems, will help to avoid naturally occurring oceanic threats such as plankton blooms, hypoxia, and sea lice.

"This technology developed by Poseidon is critical to allow us to create healthy living conditions within the space where we raise our salmon,” said Rodrigo Cristi, Mowi’s technical manager. “The salmon have been growing in the system for six months now and fish condition, which includes size and health, are looking very promising so far.”

The collaboration is part of a wider trend in the Vancouver Island tech ecosystem. The province has more than 25,000 kilometres of coastline and a strategic geographic location, making it no surprise that more than 1,000 marine companies have established headquarters in British Columbia — with a number of the major players hailing from the Island. The industry remains a strategic priority for government organization Trade and Invest BC, with many local companies cutting their teeth selling to other businesses in the province before landing big contracts globally.

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Innovative Blue Tech Solutions Solve Ocean Challenges

The latest COAST Talks panel discussion features a non-profit organization disrupting traditional approaches to ecosystem restoration, a startup whose innovations provide transformative tools for marine conservation and another whose bioplastic solution harnesses the ocean’s bounty to grow the circular economy and lessen ocean pollution. Watch on YouTube » 

To learn more about COAST’s work building Pacific Canada's hub for the sustainable blue economy, visit canadacoast.ca.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🏢 It’s in the game: Videogame giant EA Games could be expanding its footprint in Victoria. Metalhead Studio (previously Metalhead Software) was acquired by the giant in 2021, and currently has offices on Fort Street. The team is now rumoured to be expanding to Vic West’s Upper Harbour Place offices on Tyee Road.

☀️ It’s in the stars: Solaires Entreprises, a company that creates solar cells, has won a Global Energy Show award for Excellence in Power Generation. There were 50 nominees for the awards as well as 250 submissions, and the company was chosen as one of just seven winners.

🫴 It’s in your hands: Joanna Buczkowska-McCumber, founder and principal sustainability strategist at the Ideas for Impact Sustainability Agency, published her Impact Brief newsletter: a monthly recap of social purpose and sustainability in action around the world of business.

📈 It’s in your future: Andrew McLeod, Certn's CEO, released a video of his talk at this year’s Collision Conference in Toronto about hyperscaling growth.

🕴️Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Mid to Senior Software Engineer at SingleOps

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📅 Upcoming events

July 13 | “Icebreaker” is a 4-Letter Word: In this fast-paced session, experience a range of activities that are “fun with a purpose.”

July 17 | How to Plan for the Use of AI in Enterprise Marketing Teams: Consider whether you should you allow the use of tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Microsoft Copilot by your marketing team.

July 22 | iWIST Intercultural Wellness Wander: Celebrate diversity and unity among womxn in science and technology from various cultures and heritages, starting at Royal Bay Beach.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

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