Community Supported Fishing

You could probably say that I grew up on the water.  While I was officially born in Nanaimo, my parents only moved there in the weeks leading up to my birth.  Before that, they lived on Lasqueti Island and made a living log salvaging in the Wee Gordie.

The Wee Gordie is a 40 ft steel tugboat that my dad bought sometime back in the early 1970's.  It carried my parents all around the Georgia Straight and helped my dad earn enough money to support his new family.  Our time on Lasqueti was short-lived but we simply moved onto other, smaller islands from there.

The arrival of my sister Katie and subsequently, Angela, meant the challenges of living without running water or electricity became more than my parents wanted to deal with. We moved permanently onto Vancouver Island, settling first in Nanaimo before my parents found a house to buy in Ladysmith.

While my parents became 'big' islanders, the call of the ocean never left them (or us).  We spent our summers on the Wee Gordie, scouring the beaches of Hornby Island and swimming in Little Tribune Bay.  Many weekends were spent in a small dinghy, fishing for cod off Yellow Point.  I learned to spin cast on Stocking Lake for trout while my sisters played with salamanders at the water's edge.  I raised salmon fry throughout high school to be released in the creeks near Cedar (I even did an internship at the Bamfield Marine Station as a result of my salmon enhancement work).  Family legend has it that I caught my first fish at the age of two.  Most importantly, when finances got tight and the employment world was hard on my parents, the Wee Gordie and the government docks in Ladysmith harbour became our home for one long, cold winter.

All of this is to say that I love the ocean.  The ocean is in my blood, my heart, and my soul. I don't always totally understand how it is that I came to live in the Rocky Mountains but I know that one day, I will return home to the Pacific Ocean.  However, that will likely be many years from now and in the meantime, this girl needs to get her hands on some decent fish!

Not surprisingly, it is difficult to get fresh fish around these parts.  Most of the fish that is sold in the Bow Valley is either frozen or farmed or both.  It's expensive and the quality often leaves little to be desired.  I first heard of Skipper Otto's Community Supported Fishery last year but held off on ordering from them because my dad thought that it was too expensive.  A recent review of salmon prices at a fish market in Calgary reminded me that while Skipper Otto's prices are higher than one would find on Vancouver Island, they are pretty reasonable  for fish sold in Alberta.

After speaking to two of their Alberta customers, I've decided to order a CSF share this year.  They deliver their fish to Alberta in the fall with the possibility of other delivery dates at some point before that.  They also sell CSF shares to folks in Vancouver and Regina. Take a look at their website and see if this is something you'd be interested in.  It seems like a great concept and another fabulous way to support a small food operations.