Vancouver Island has many Ports And Harbours. Some are small, like Winter Harbour, while others are huge, like the Victoria or Nanaimo Harbours. Most of these are managed well and have amazing environmental standards, while some others are disasters regarding these issues.
Blunden Harbour
Blunden Harbour is located on the mainland, directly across from Port Hardy, at the entrance to Bradley Lagoon. At the turn of the century, the village at Blunden Harbour was inhabited, but it has mostly returned to the forest and the sea. But if you take the time, you can still see the remains of the longhouses lined up on the beach. The old chimney is all that remains of the house tucked around the corner from the village site. A few of my wife’s older uncles were born here. Read More
Campbell River Harbour
The Ports And harbours in Campbell River are very busy, with all kinds of activities, including both commercial and tourist-based ones. I have always enjoyed walking around the docks, chatting with the fishermen, and checking out some of the large yachts that have journeyed here from other parts of the world. The barge loading facility on the north side of town is always very busy. Read More….
Coal Harbour
Coal Harbour tells you about how this village got its name. This brought the Northwest Coal Company to the shores of Stephens Bay in 1883. The seams seemed very promising, but the coal proved to be of poor quality, and the mine went bankrupt in the early 1900s. By 1907, there was only a caretaker left to watch the mine. There are rumours about this caretaker that are still talked about to this day; this fellow’s name was John Sharp….or was it? Read More….
Comox Harbour
The first European settlers began arriving in the Comox area in 1862 and started clearing land for farms and logging the extensive forests. Many ships had to anchor in the Comox Harbour and transport their goods back and forth by tender. In 1893, the Comox Wharf was built to accommodate the ships. This was the beginning of the city of Comox. This was the beginning of the Comox Valley. Read More….
Cowichan Bay Harbour
Cowichan Bay Harbour is located on the east coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It is one of the prettiest communities on Vancouver Island and one that everyone should visit at least once. Cowichan Bay was first settled by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which built a trading post and fort here in the 1850s. Read More….
Deep Bay Harbour
Deep Bay is located on Vancouver Island, 26 km north of Qualicum Beach. The area is known as “lighthouse country”. Lighthouse Country is named for the two lighthouses that mark its boundaries. It stretches from Qualicum Bay on the south end to Fanny Bay on the north end. In between these communities, you will find a wealth of things to do. The Harbour is a pretty cool place to start. Read More….
Departure Bay Harbour
Departure Bay Harbour has been occupied for many years by the First Peoples. One of the earliest in the region was a First Nations group known as the Snuneymuxw. It has been shown that for at least 2000 years, they have lived by the harbour. The area was first explored by the Spanish from 1770 to about 1790. The area was known as Stil’ilup then. The bay was renamed Departure Bay Harbour, but in 1855, it was shortened to just Departure Bay. Read More….
Fair Harbour
From Fair Harbour, you can gain access by boat to the wilderness of Tahsis Kwois Provincial Park, which is located at the head of Kyuquot Sound and the mouth of the Tahsis River. Here you will find high and rugged mountains with valleys of giant old-growth trees. Read More….
Fanny Bay Harbour
The Fanny Bay Ports and Harbours are situated on southeast Vancouver Island, on Baynes Sound, which separates Vancouver Island and Denman Island. The harbour overlooks the Strait of Georgia and the Gulf Islands, with the Coastal Mountains as a backdrop. Fanny Bay Harbour is on the northern boundary of Lighthouse Country, a stretch of Highway 19 that runs along the shoreline from Qualicum Bay to Fanny Bay. There is a lighthouse at either end. Read More….
Gold River Harbour
The Gold River Ports and Harbours are located on the west coast of the island. There was logging going on at the estuary since the 40s and by the 1960s. Tahsis Company was logging the area. Then, in 1964, they built a pulp and paper mill in the harbour. This created a need for a town, and one was laid out, not just a normal town, though; this was modern, and all power, phone, and cable TV lines were put underground. This was the first town in BC to do this. Read More….
Holberg Harbour
At the time of initial settlement, Holberg was extremely isolated. Local travel was limited to short distances on forest footpaths. In 1896, the government built a road from Port Hardy to the south island, and goods could be brought up to Hardy with smaller shipping costs. Now the flow of goods was primarily overland to Coal Harbour from Port Hardy and then by boat up the inlet to Holberg, where the goods were offloaded at Holberg Harbour. Read More….
Kelsey Bay Harbour
Kelsey Bay Ports and Harbours is under one hour from Campbell River in the south and about 2 hours from Port Hardy to the north. The harbour can also be reached by boat via the Johnstone Strait. As with all communities on northern Vancouver Island, Kelsey Bay was only easily accessible by water in the past. It was not until after World War II that a gravel road connected Sayward and Kelsey Bay with Campbell River. Read More….
Ladysmith Harbour
Located on the east side of South Vancouver Island, right on the 49th parallel, Ladysmith is a small but very pretty town built on the hillside overlooking the glistening waters of Ladysmith Harbour. One of the older settlements on Vancouver Island, the community was originally known as Oyster Harbour. It was built in 1899 by James Dunsmuir, son of Vancouver Island’s prosperous coal-mining family. Read More….
Maple Bay Harbour
The Port and Harbours are located in the Cowichan Valley on southern Vancouver Island. Maple Bay is home to marine activity all year round. The sheltered haven of Maple Bay is situated in Sansum Narrows, which separates Vancouver Island from Saltspring Island. Maple Bay is serviced by Salt Spring Air and Harbour Air. They fly regularly scheduled flights a day from Maple Bay Marina to Vancouver, Ganges Harbour, and Salt Spring Island. Read More….
Mill Bay Harbour
The Mill Bay Harbour is quite busy; there are restaurants, wharves, kayak rentals, guides, tour boat operators, and just about everything in between. You can catch a ferry here that will take you to Brentwood Bay. This is a great way to avoid the snow in the winter on the Malahat. It’s a laid-back way of life here, and although you are only a few miles from Victoria, it’s a nice place. Come on and take a visit. Read More….
Port Alberni
Port Alberni is located at the head of Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island. This is the jumping-off spot for West Coast adventures; from here, you can reach Tofino, Ucluelet, Bamfield, Lake Cowichan, and Port Renfrew, as well as all the wilderness in between these communities. This is a premier eco-tourist territory; it’s the best the island has. Read More….
Port Alice
Port Alice Ports and Harbours is located on northwest Vancouver Island. It is located on the shores of Neroutsos Inlet. It is surrounded by lush rainforests that are filled with wildlife like black bears, cougars, sea otters, mink and many others, a place of pristine wilderness that just beckons to outdoor enthusiasts and a wild west coast sea that is filled with wildlife that includes orcas, gray whales, porpoises, seals and stellar sea lions. Read More….
Port Hardy
There is a lot of wildlife in and around the Ports and Harbours in Hardy. Every year, killer whales run up and down the coasts of Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound. Take a trip on one of the tour boats from late June to late October, and you’ll see and hear these majestic mammals along with humpback, gray and minke whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and sea otters. Read More….
Port Mcneil
Port McNeill and its Ports and Harbours sit on the edge of the Broughton Archipelago, on the northeast side of Vancouver Island. It is surrounded by misty rainforests, spectacular mountains, rushing rivers, and serene lakes. The community has a resource-based economy, but it is balanced with a great tourism industry that will continue to grow and prosper. Read More….
Port Neville
Port Neville was an important community on the coast and, over the years, operated as a post office, general store, and fuel dock. In 1895, Hans became the first postmaster for the port. The Post Office was the oldest continually operating post office in B.C. It closed in 2010. Read More….
Port Renfrew
Port Renfrew Ports And harbours are located at the end of Highway 14 on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. It is situated on the Port San Juan inlet. Back in 1895, the postal address was the Port San Juan post. The problem with this is that mail was quite often sent to the San Juan Islands Post Office instead. So the settlers renamed their post office, Port Renfrew, in 1895. Today’s population is 190. Read More….
Sooke Harbour
Sooke Ports and Harbours is located just 60 minutes from Victoria’s Inner Harbour along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. There are ample opportunities to go fishing, surfing, hiking, whale watching, mountain biking, and bird watching here. You could also just walk on our unspoiled beaches for a great, relaxing day. Read More….
Winter Harbour
Winter Harbour got its name from the merchant sailing ships of the 1700s. During the winter months, the cove was used for protection from storms. Winter Harbour is still very active along its waterfront. The commercial fleet still puts it to good use, and it’s a destination for tourism and a put-in for small boats, kayaks, and a port for sailboats during the summer months. Read More….
Zeballos Harbour
The discovery of gold in Zeballos in the 1920s brought on a gold rush, and the village of Zeballos became a city almost overnight. The historic buildings in the village are a living reminder of those frontier days. You can see the history from those days all around the village. Today, the village is a small west coast community with a resource-based economy, but tourism is starting to be a driving force as more and more visitors are looking to the west coast as a destination. Read More….
The Island has for the past 100 years been driven by a resource-based economy, but over the past few years. We have seen it begin to change into a tourist-based economy.
With this change, we are seeing some of these Ports And Harbours being cleaned up and returned more to their natural states. There is still some industry working here, but wherever it’s possible, the environment has been getting a hand. Most of this work has been and is being taken on by nonprofit groups manned by volunteers. Many of these Ports And Harbours are situated in river estuaries, so the issues are quite broad, everything from sewage outflows to salmon-rearing areas.
It pleases me to see this drive to help nature take back what it can. The David Suzuki Foundation has been creating videos about rewilding the Vancouver area. These videos are quite inspiring, and I would like to use the same concept here on the island to show what can be done and allow people to see how a few dedicated volunteers can do so much. This could inspire a whole new generation of environmental caretakers.
Thank you for putting this wealth of information together. Very tastefull photography and videos.
Thank you Tess.