Tag Archives: Cortes Island Aquaculture

Rivers & Oceans

Harbour Authority Cortes Island: The Small Craft Harbours connection

Harbour Authority Cortes Island (HACI) has embarked upon a campaign to inform the public who they are and what they do. Harbourmaster Jenny Hartwick provided Cortes Currents with a concise description of the organization. 

“The Harbour Authority is a nonprofit organization, which is made up of an eight volunteer board of directors. All of whom are local year round, residents  and are actively involved in boating on Cortes, either commercial fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, or as recreational boaters. Under contract with Small Craft Harbours, the Harbour Authority is responsible for the operation and basic maintenance of the four government docks on the island: Squirrel Cove, Manson’s Landing, Cortes Bay, and Gorge Harbour,” she said. “We also operate the Whaletown Dock, which was formally divested from Transport Canada in 2009. The Harbour Authority actually owns that dock outright.” 

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History, Rivers & Oceans

The origins of Cortes Island’s Shellfish Industry

In the most recent of her interviews about Cortes History, Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, traces one of the Island’s foremost industries from its pre-contact beginnings up until recent times.  

Lynne Jordan: “ The First Nations cultivated clam gardens on this coast for 3,000 to 5,000 years, maybe even longer. One on Quadra Island was recently dated at being around 3,500 years old.”

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Business, Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Overview of Klahoose Aquaculture

In 2007, Chief Ken Brown purchased 50% of a 34 hectare sub-tidal geoduck farm off Squirrel Cove, on Cortes Island. In the years that followed, the Klahoose First Nation bought their partner out. They were 100% owners when Bruno Pereira became General Manager of Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation (QXMC). 

The next phase of Klahoose Aquaculture growth grew out of a series of discussions that Pereira had with Operations Manager Paul Muskee, more than two years ago.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

5,000 Chum fry released back into Basil Creek

More than 20 people gathered at the Klahoose hatchery in Squirrel Cove to watch around  5,000 Chum fry be released back into Basil Creek on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Six of them were women and girls from the Klahoose village, who came to sing a prayer song. Seven were homeschool students, enrolled in the Partners in Education (PIE) program, who came with their mothers. There were also a handful of Cortes Island streamkeepers, three Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) personal and two reporters. 

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Environment

Monitoring fish and insects in the Dillon Creek Wetlands

Seven adults and two children came to monitor wildlife in the Dillon Creek Wetlands, on April 1st. 

Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) streamkeepers Cec and Christine Robinson and FOCI’s Autumn Barrett-Morgan led the educational event. They began by listening to the birds, whose calls came from every side, and the gurgling flow of Dillon Creek. The aroma of damp earth rose to everyone’s nostrils. 

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