By 1979, Norm Gibbons wanted a change. He had been one of the partners in the Refuge Cove Store for the past eight years. He had not yet decided to move to Cortes Island, when he started looking into the oyster sector.
“Oysters weren’t cultured at that point in time. There were just oysters out there. Anybody involved in the industry picked oysters, shucked them, and sold the shuck to Vancouver.”
Continue reading Norm Gibbons: Cortes Island, beginnings of oyster cultivation and writing
On Monday March 6, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) closed the waters and intertidal foreshore of Deep Bay Harbour, on Vancouver Island, to oyster and scallop growers, due to ‘sanitary reasons.’
Erik Lyon, owner operator of Rising Tide Shellfish on Cortes Island explained, “The problem is too many people in too close a proximity to shellfish farms. You can’t have any shellfish destined for human consumption in water where there’s any kind of a man-made dock, boat liveaboard or float house within 125 metres. That’s a setback that’s always been in place.”
Continue reading Growers Perspective: Boats and Aquaculture in Gorge Harbour
There are probably a dozen abandoned boats on Cortes Island right now, and Dominic dos Santos would like to have them towed away.
“A lot of them are floating. Some of them just have no names on them. People just leave them there. it’s just been 15 years of ‘not my problem.’ We have fiberglass shards on every beach now because they abandon the boats and let ’em get destroyed on the rocks . All this stuff is gonna wind up on the beach in the next five, 10 years?” he said.
Continue reading Trying to clean up Cortes Island’s abandoned boats and provide homes for the homelessNational Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Dave Nikleva walks the shoreline of a Cortes Island beach nudging oysters with the toe of his boot.
“Dead. Dead. Dead,” Nikleva mutters as he goes along.
The shellfish farmer stoops over to pick up one bigger specimen for inspection before tossing it back on the beach.
The stench along this stretch of Gorge Harbour at low tide is tremendous. But it was even worse two weeks ago when a record-breaking heat wave cooked thousands upon thousands of oysters in their shells in the final days of June.
Continue reading Oyster & Clam sectors burned during heat wave
