Early Fisherfolk in Whaletown and Gorge Harbour

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - 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.

Early fisherfolk based in Whaletown

The first name on the list of commercial fisherfolk from Whaletown is Frank Tooker, who had a rowboat named ‘Lone Star’ in the 30’s.

Lynne Jordan: “Fishing was sort of secondary to the main Whaletown occupation of logging, but there were a lot of fishermen that came up from the Lower Mainland and Victoria to base themselves out of Whaletown because the fishing was good in the Desolation Sound area, particularly between Cortes and Quadra Islands.”