Tag Archives: Marina Island

Disaster, Politics

An Open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island

SRD staff is preparinig an open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island. 

This is in response to Coastal Fire Centre’s decision to allow campfires, on June 20: ‘due to cooler conditions and rainfall, which has reduced the fire danger rating in these areas.’ However appropriate this may have been in other areas under the Centre’s control, it was not on Cortes Island. As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!”

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Animals, Rivers & Oceans

FOCI’s Marine Stewardship Initiative

“The best overview of the FOCI’s Marine Stewardship Initiative (MSI), the absolute best overview in a nutshell, is an Arthur C Clarke’s quote. It’s the mantra of the MSI. Arthur C. Clarke wrote ‘How inappropriate to call this Planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.’ That is, in a nutshell, the Marine Stewardship Initiative,” explained Sabina Leader Mense, Program coordinator.

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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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Communications, History

How telephones came to Cortes Island 

According to Lynne Jordan,  former president of the Cortes Island Museum, there have been telephones on Cortes Island for more than 110 years. They arrived in 1910, along with telegraphs, but only in the stores.

“Telegrams were really cheap. They were so much for 10 words and so much for 100 words.  People got really good at confining their messages to 10 words. Telegraphs that came in for people were just put in an envelope and then pinned on the bulletin board at the store.  Then they either had to check themselves or a friend would tell them that there was a message there for them,” she said.

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History

How fossil #144 came to the Cortes Island Museum

On Saturday, September 3, 2022, Christian Gronau installed a 130 million year fossil on the Cortes Island Museum porch. This is the third rock from his collection on display, and fossil #144 of a series.

“I believe this quest for fossils, the erratics that he’s been searching for has been a 20 year project,” said Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Cortes Island Museum and Archives.

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