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Originally printed in the Winter 2016 issue of Aquaculture North America.

Recent research has revealed that climate change and rising ocean temperatures have, and continue to, create optimal conditions for a variety of Vibrio cholerae – a naturally occurring bacteria that is often found in zooplankton, particularly in copepods.

A magnified shot of Vibrio cholerae. Research printed in the US’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that rising water temperatures are creating optimal conditions for the potentially lethal bacteria.

Due to the potential health hazards of certain types of Vibrio,  research has shown some of the first ever demonstrable human impacts of climate change. For those in the aquaculture industry, increased presence of Vibrio in ocean water and shellfish presents an increased risk and may require enhanced safety protocols.

“The Vibrios comprise a genus, a taxonomic unit, with a number of species,” says Dr Rita Colwell, distinguished professor with the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. “When I first started studying Vibrios as a graduate student, some 50 years ago, there were only a few, maybe less than a dozen species. Now we have almost 200.”

Impact on human health

Dr Rita Colwell of the University of Maryland has been studying Vibrios for 50 years

The health concerns associated with the bacteria are significant. Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent in Asiatic cholera, which can cause diarrhea, dysentery and vomiting and can be life-threatening if not treated. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is known to cause food poisoning and is generally associated with oysters and contaminated crabs. Vibrio vulnificus is perhaps the most well known and can be lethal in individuals with compromised immune systems or liver disease.

“Vibrio vulnificus is really wicked,” says Dr Colwell. “It kills, quickly. If you have a cut or abrasion and you have that exposed to sea water containing the Vibrio vulnificus, it will enter the cut, cause a terrible would and, if not properly treated, goes systemic, liquefies the internal organs and it can kill within a matter of days.”

The research effort largely centered around the plankton catalogues at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England. For 50 years, the centre’s researchers collected samples of plankton from ocean waters around the world and recorded the water temperature in each area. The research team in Italy, led by Dr Luigi Vezzulli, extracted DNA from those decades of stored samples using gene probes.

Precautionary measures

The good news is that consumers have little to fear from the bacteria – properly cooking seafood is enough to kill the bacteria. However, people who work in the aquaculture industry will likely want to take extra precautions.

“I would be very careful with cuts and wounds and having them exposed to sea water and animals,” says Dr Colwell. “I would have good gloves and I would get cuts treated properly. If you notice anything, you’re just using common sense and possibly saving your life, or at least saving yourself some trouble, by getting it treated and having a physician understand that there is the possibility of a Vibrio infection.”

At this point, Dr Colwell says that the only measures that can be taken are preventative; once Vibrio cholerae are in your waters, there is no treatment. If human beings were able to reverse the course of climate change and lower water temperatures, Vibrio numbers would likely recede, however Dr Colwell doesn’t see that as likely.

“The climate change deniers are doing us a huge disservice,” says Dr Colwell. “We need to reverse this, or at least keep it stabilized. These Vibrios react so dramatically to temperatures and salinity. All it takes is a one or two degree increase in temperatures and the number of bacteria is going to increase.”

A representative for the Public Health Agency of Canada says that they have a surveillance system in place which routinely monitors for human cases of cholera and identifies any occurrence or increase in occurrences of cholera in Canada. Bacteria from each case are closely studied and sources of infection are investigated through genomics laboratory techniques.

“The Agency has extensive expertise in tracking and monitoring Vibrio cholerae, and was a leader in investigating the large cholera outbreak that occurred in Haiti in 2010. The Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Health Canada work with public health officials and provincial ministries of health to confirm the source of any food-related illnesses when an outbreak is suspected.”

Originally printed in the Fall 2016 issue of Crane & Hoist Canada

In June 1943 in the Whitney Pier area of Sydney, N.S., a young couple was seeking a marriage licence.

“What’s your occupation?” the clerk asked as he filled out the application form.

Rose and Roy Young post for a wedding photo on June 29, 1943.

Roy Young, the would-be groom, replied “craneman.”

The clerk wrote it down and then asked Young for his fiancée’s occupation.

“Craneman,” he replied again.

Obviously, the gentleman had misunderstood, so the clerk clarified he meant the bride-to-be’s occupation. Undeterred, Young insisted: “Craneman.”

The clerk was shocked. “My god, man, I can’t put that on the certificate!”

Eventually, Rose Grant and fiancé Roy were able to convince the clerk that she had indeed worked the crane at the rail mill in Whitney Pier. The clerk noted her occupation as “cranewoman.”

Women kept industry running

Rose Grant Young was one of many women who took over what had been traditionallyconsidered men’s jobs during Second World War conscription. The contributions of Grant Young and other women like her kept the wheels of industry and production spinning at home while young Canadian men were sent into combat overseas.

Rose’s father died before her second birthday. She and her sister were raised by their mother who made ends meet as a dressmaker. Rose began work at a general goods store, but soon sought out more lucrative work.

“At that time, my mother was in financial difficulties,” Rose told Cape Breton Magazine in 1984. “I asked for a raise at the place where I was working, and I didn’t get too much satisfaction. So when I heard that they were taking names on the plant, we went over and put our names in.”

Rose and other applicants were taken in for training — whoever took to the training quickest would get the jobs. There were no certifications or qualifications required.

“Back then, you were given training, but it would have been as if you were training at Tim Hortons right now,” said Rose’s daughter, Valerie Young Levesque, in a recent interview with Crane & Hoist Canada. “You had someone who told you, ‘This is the way it goes; this is the way it works,’ and if you caught it and could pick it up and do it, you got the job.”

Rose started crane work in a plate mill, where she learned simple lifts in a controlled environment. She proved adept enough that when a position opened in the rail mill, her superintendent motivated her to go for it.

“He told me, ‘They tell me a woman will never run the rail mill crane. You and I are going to prove them wrong!’ He was quite the psychologist. And, of course, that’s all I needed to hear, was that the men were against the women; in other words, that made me try that much harder.”

Training starts with a shock

Two candidates — Rose and another woman — were trained in the rail mill by a father-son duo. The son, who was about to leave for war, trained the other woman. The father, named Maynard, trained Rose. In a 1991 interview with The Beaton Institute, Rose described being brought into the chaos of the rail mill and where Maynard would teach her to run the 12-foot-high crane.

“I looked and there was hardly two inches that there wasn’t something in the way, and I thought to myself, ‘How in the name of God can I do any work in this place?’ This was the rail mill, where they roll the rails. And this great big housing, it’s like a house but like a jigsaw puzzle. You take it apart and you put it together for different size rails and all this. I thought the man must be a magician.”

Her first day training under Maynard was a rough start — she was electrocuted when she touched a charged billet while climbing into the crane.

“Where did the electricity come from, to run the crane? Never, ever dawned on me, you know. First thing I did was put my hand on one of the billets and I was caught, you know, couldn’t get my hand off. Nobody ever explained anything like that.”

In time, however, Maynard did teach her everything she needed to know to do the job. His training not only taught her the execution of the lifts and maneuvers in tight spaces, but he also taught her how to do her own repairs and maintenance.

“He was a fantastic operator,” said Rose in 1984. “He had been there for 35 years. He taught me how to pick up the boxes with the scrap in, take it down, dump it, bring it back. He taught me so many things about the lifts, how to keep it from swaying and things like that.”

Trainer becomes family

Rose earned the job on the rail mill crane and few years later Maynard became her father-in-law — Rose’s eventual fiancé Roy had been training the other candidate.

Crane operators in the rail mill would have to position rollers for the hot steel to roll through, swapping for different sized rollers as necessary, all while maintaining safety for the workers below. Rose’s masterful and safe control of the crane earned the respect of her co-workers.

“Later, I discovered, everybody used to stand and just watch, and they were in awe of the things I could do with the straps,” Rose said in 1984. “We’d take hot steel, I could take the straps and put them on the end, lift them over, drop them on the pile, and then take the straps off and come back again. I didn’t know that the others couldn’t do that. They would have to have a crane-chaser take the straps off for them.”

Rose retired from operating the crane as men began returning from the war. In the years that followed she spoke fondly of her time on the cranes, though she kept herself very busy.

“My mom was a very smart woman,” Young Levesque recalled. “She didn’t go to college, but she never stopped learning. Anything that was of any interest whatsoever to her — and everything was — she had to learn more about it. She was such a good woman in everything she did. She was involved in political parties, she would open offices for certain parties and would run that. She was involved in a lot of things. She was a community leader.”

Rosie still remembered

In the 1990s, a reporter described her as Canada’s version of Rosie the Riveter, the popular war-era icon representing the women who worked in American shipyards and factories. Rose Grant Young enjoyed the attention and reminiscing about her past until she died in 1994. Today, her daughter is happy to share her memories and to have her Rose’s contributions recognized.

“There’s a young woman who drives a tourist limousine here in the summer,” Young Levesque said. “I just found out last year that she uses my mother’s story. She refers to her as our Canadian Rosie the Riveter every time she takes someone out. That blew my mind when she told me that. I think it’s wonderful that my mother’s story is being brought out every summer.”