Welfare award for MH's Steve Bracken
MARINE Harvest Scotland’s longest serving employee, Steve Bracken, was thanked for his commitment to fish welfare at a special presentation in Fort William yesterday.
Two members of the RSPCA Assured scheme (formerly known as Freedom Food) surprised Bracken, Marine Harvest’s business support manager, when they arrived at the company’s Stob Ban office to make the presentation.
Malcolm Johnstone, aquaculture manager with RSPCA Assured, and colleague John Avizienius, said they wanted to recognise the immense work and help Bracken had given them in the 16 years in which the scheme had been running.
Bracken, who is due to retire this summer, had been a great advocate of the scheme from the very beginning and was the main contact within Marine Harvest, said Johnstone.
Without his ‘help, time, knowledge and patience’, the RSPCA Assured scheme would not be where it is today, and the award was for his contribution towards fish welfare within Marine Harvest Scotland and the industry as a whole.
Bracken said: ‘I am delighted and honoured to receive this very special award, which is totally unexpected.
‘It’s all been down to team work in getting us where we are today with a robust fish welfare standard, and I’m just very pleased to have played a part in taking the RSPCSA Assured Standard forward in MHS.’
Picture: Steve Bracken receiving his award from the RSPCA’s Malcolm Johnstone (Abrightside Photography)