Exploring Steveston

Old cannery and shipyard buildings in Steveston, BC

We recently went to explore Steveston harbour. Steveston is a neat fishing village to the south of Vancouver, at the mouth of the south arm of the Fraser river. This is one of the places where Nici goes out on the water as a part of her job to monitor the Dungeness crab fishery.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Steveston was home to a huge salmon canning industry. There are some cool old cannery buildings, shipyards, net lofts, and restored residences for workers along the harbor waterfront.

Although all the canneries have long since closed due to the diminished salmon stocks, Steveston is still an active fishing port, with a large fleet of seiners, trawlers, and other boats based here. In fact, it is home to Canada's largest commercial fishing fleet (according to the communuty's website). We enjoyed walking along the wharves and looking at the boats - I am really into checking out working fishing boats and all things maritime related (but not overfishing and mismanagement, of course).

We had a great time exploring the waterfront. Before leaving, we bought a couple of big Dungeness crabs right off the boat from a crab fisherman that Nici knows and look them home for dinner accompanied by some excellent BC wine!

(Cameras: top three, Holga CFN with Kodak VC 120 film; bottom, Polaroid Spectra)