Sandy Matheson
set to retire from
federal fisheries

By A.P. McCredie
News Reporter

MOST FISHERMEN would
never dream of turning over
their life at sea for that of a
federal government
employee.

One salty dog who did just that
more than 20 years ago is retiring
at the end of this week from a life
that, even while on the govern-
ment payroil, revolved around the
sea.

Russell ‘‘Sandy’”? Matheson has
worked at the Ministry of Fish-
eries and Oceans West Vancouver
Laboratory since 1972, when he
traded his fishing boat skipper hat
for the skipper’s hat of the
laboratory’s research vessel, the
Active Lass. °

Working out of the 4160 Marine
Dr. facility was nothing new for
the Hope, B.C. native.

The laboratory sits on the
grounds of the old Millard Can-
nery factory, which was once the
only salmon cannery on the North
Shore.

Old pictures of the cannery's
staff houses and docks adorn the
labyrinth of hallways in the
warehouse wing of the sprawling
facility.

Two weeks before his retire.

SANDY MATHESON sits on a lumber cart used by his friend tkari back when the Millard Cannery
was in operation. The Horseshoe Bay resident retires on Friday from a life devoted to the 8.C.

fishing industry.

ment, Matheson gave a reporter
and photographer a tour of the
laboratory, stopping every now
and again to point to a picture
and tell a little story.

There could not be a better
guide.

One gets the impression of
touring the innards of a ship as
Matheson —_ acting as proud

captain — lovingly pats a genera-
tor here, and strokes a compressor
over there.

Matheson knows every inch of
pipe that serpentines throughout
the grounds to feed the hundreds
of tanks that are used by the
research facility.

indeed, his knowledge of the
workings and the history of the

NEWS photo Mike Wakelield

water system will be hard to
replace.

‘Sandy knows things about the
site, such as what lines are buried
where, that nobody else knows,”’
said laboratory fish culturist Andy
Lamb. ‘We'll definitely miss that,
but | think what all of us will miss
most about Sandy is the way he
would help anybody who asked

44 /’m not sure

(what I'll be doing)

vet, but it wont be

fishing. 97

— Sandy fatheson

for his assistance.”

Asked why he traded the sea-
faring life for a nine-to-five
grind, Matheson matter-of-factly
replies, ‘‘The lab needed a skipper
for the Active Lass, and I was
ready for a change from commer-
cial fishing.”

Moving, along with his wife,
from their Quadra Island home to
Horseshoe Bay was another
change. They still live in the
west-side community.

Matheson has no regrets about
the 1972 decision.

“During my days fishing on the
coast, I’ve seen a lot of oldtimers
climbing up the ladders into their
bunks, being handed a bucket and
their meals, and |! thought to
myself,‘Do 1 want to be like that
when I get older?’ ”

Another factor that
Matheson jump ships was

made
the

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