Tag Archives: fishing on Quadra

Rivers & Oceans

Feds must fix unfair West Coast fishing rules: House committee (Cortes, Quadra, CR data added)

Editor’s Note: There was once a thriving fishing industry on Cortes Island. Chris Kendel is still based here, but catches his fish up north on the Taku River. Meanwhile Campbell River’s Highline Fish Company sells some of its catch at the Mansons Landing dock. There are still fishing boats in the Discovery Harbour Marina, owned by the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, and some Campbell River residents buy their fish at the dock.  Quadra Island Fisheries’ boats ‘fish the rugged coast of Northern Vancouver Island, West  Coast Vancouver Island, and the mainland inlets.‘ The Tantrum 1, also based on Quadra Island, ‘trolls our coasts from Northern California all the way to the Alaskan border.‘

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Federal inaction means West Coast harvesters still flounder with unfair fishing regulations, says a parliamentary committee.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada faces a wave of criticism in a recent report by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO), which reiterated a call to equalize fishing policy on the coasts.

For the second time in five years, the committee is pushing the fisheries department (DFO) to make changes so only Canadian fish harvesters with actual “boots on deck” of a boat can own fishing licences or quota on the West Coast.

Continue reading Feds must fix unfair West Coast fishing rules: House committee (Cortes, Quadra, CR data added) →
Food, Rivers & Oceans

Canada needs to curb its import-export swap to make seafood sustainable

Editor’s note: While only 3 or 3 fishing boats still working out of Cortes Island, Klahoose Aquaculture employs about 20 people during the season. There are 10 or so lease holders belonging to the Bee Islets Corporation in Gorge Harbour and numerous shore leases around Cortes, Marina, Read and Quadra Islands. The photo above shows the fishing boats tied up at Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A deep dive exploring how seafood can reach the tables of Canadian consumers and remain sustainable took place at a recent UN World Food Day event in Vancouver.  

Keeping equity and the environment top of mind while creating a new ocean or “blue” economy was a key theme for panel experts at the day-long conference. 

The pandemic’s disruption of the global food supply chain underscored how vital it is to develop local and regional seafood sovereignty and empower small-scale fisheries, said panel member Claire Dawson, Ocean Wise’s senior manager of its fisheries and seafood initiative.  

Continue reading Canada needs to curb its import-export swap to make seafood sustainable →
History, Rivers & Oceans

When fishing was an industry in Whaletown

A great many fisherfolk once worked out of Whaletown. The Cortes Island Museum’s list goes back to the 1930s, at which point there were 7 men and a woman. Three of them used rowboats. 

“There used to be a huge fleet rafted out, both six and seven abreast all along  both sides of the dock, in Whaletown.  In the last 10 years or so, there’s only been three or four boats in there, fishing. The main one  that I know of in the last little while is the ‘C-Fin,’ but he goes outside of the Vancouver Island area and fishes tuna. When he comes back he doesn’t sell it to a fisheries, he sells it from the dock, and the same with his prawns.  So he’s not using a middle man to sell his products, which I suppose is one of the few ways you could make a little bit of money now,“ said Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, in the latest instalment of her history of Whaletown.

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