My family has been feeding the community in the Cowichan Valley since my Great Grandfather started farming in North Cowichan in the 1880s. My grandfather and then my aunt farmed the same land until the ’60s. I don’t farm — but I harvest from the sea, carrying on the family tradition of feeding the community along a different path.
A long journey to feed the community
My path to feed the community is a long one. We travel five and a half days along the BC coast to fish. Dixon Entrance is the body of water north of Haida Gwaii, stretching up to the border with southeast Alaska — and that is where we work.
I fish by trolling, using hook and line. There are three lines coming off each side of the boat, with multiple flashers and hooks on each line and a heavy cannonball at the end to take the gear down and hold it in place. The lines are spread apart by long trolling poles that we lower to a 45-degree angle when we are fishing.
One fish at a time
We catch our salmon one at a time, hauling in our lines and unhooking each flasher and hoochie before landing the fish. We land our catch alive — so when we have a species we are not allowed to keep, we can release the fish without ever touching it.
With the fish we do land, we make a cut in the gills to start them bleeding out. The fish are then dressed, washed, and pressure-bled before being loaded into the freezer. We use as much of the fish as we can — keeping the salmon roe and heads. We keep the limited amount of ling cod we are allowed to catch, and again we save the heads, as they are outstanding for making bouillabaisse and fish stock. Rockfish make great eating too, so we keep them when we run into them on the grounds.
Sunrise to sunset
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, we harvest until we are loaded or low on fuel — usually 10 to 14 days. Then we head in to Prince Rupert or Masset to offload our catch. A restaurant meal, some laundry, a load of supplies, and off we go to do it again.
Share in the harvest
I have run a Community Supported Fishery for the past 15 years. We sell shares of our catch directly to the community. If you are interested in eating some incredible seafood — sustainably harvested from the waters north of Haida Gwaii — we have salmon, ling cod, salmon roe, rockfish, and other seafood available.
Take a look at our website to learn more about the Michelle Rose Community Supported Fishery.
See you at the dock.
Guy Johnston
Michelle Rose