Ecofish began with the desire to help clients by giving them great consulting advice. @ecofishresearch.com
NANAIMO – As environmental awareness has increased over the past decades, so has business for Ecofish Research Ltd.
President Adam Lewis, who founded the company in his basement in Richmond in 2001 and moved to Vancouver Island a year later, notes the firm has grown an average of 20 per cent per year over the past 20 years, and now has 200 employees with offices in Nanaimo, Victoria, Courtenay and Campbell River that serve all of the Island.
Adam Lewis is President and Founder of Ecofish
“I began Ecofish with the desire to help clients by giving them great consulting advice,” says Lewis, a professional biologist. “By great, I mean accurate, unbiased information that our clients and governments can use to make informed decisions about environmental management.
“Society has put the environment in the main-stream today, but that was not true in the year 2000,” he recalls. “The demand for environ-mental services has grown significantly.
I think our approach to emphasize scientific excellence and environmental ethics has been a winning formula.”
Tom Hicks is one of the Fisheries Biologists and a Construction Environmental Management Specialist on the team, and he adds: “We have a deep understanding of our clients’ needs and a history of working with Indigenous partners to deliver successful projects. Our services are in demand right now and we’re looking to grow.
Tom Hicks is a Senior Project Manager at Ecofish
Lewis was one of the authors of a publication regarding Run-of-River power projects for the country’s most prestigious environmental journal, the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Those projects are now back in demand, after the provincial government recently announced requests for as much as 3,000 GWh per year of power from independent producers by 2028, and Lewis’ expertise in the area is an advantage for the company.
“We get involved in all phases of a project, from project design to project environment-al assessments, through permitting and into construction and then monitoring after the project,” Hicks notes. “One of our busiest areas in recent years has been monitoring during the construction phase. That’s a very critical time, because construction typically has very tight schedules under challenging conditions, and in order to protect the environment and allow the project to be constructed efficiently, you need great environmental advice on site.
“We have seen an increase for requests for that service,” he adds. “We are a firm that delivers value to our clients, the government and the community, and for the differences we’re making on Vancouver Island in construction and environmental management.”
Business Examiner Staff
