The October Vancouver Island Coast population, estimated to be 562,600 - was up 100 over September and was up over 1,800 more than October 1999. The bad news is that the labour force lost 5,000 people for varying reasons, which decreased the participation rate. The good news is the positive effect on the Unemployment rate, stabilizing it and even decreasing it this month. Overall part-time employment had a net increase with several large gains including the services, transportation, finance, management, education, and health care sectors. This suggests that labour markets are unlikely to tighten much in the near future.
All harvesting is by hand digging in intertidal areas during opportunistic tides.
Up to the mid-1970's, butter clams predominated intertidal clam landings. There was a rapid escalation of the clam fishery during the 1980's with coast-wide landings of all species reaching a peak of 4,360 tonnes in 1988. Since then, landings have declined due to the removal of accumulated stock on most beaches and more restrictive management measures with reduced harvest times. In 1998, landings of all species totalled 1,393 tonnes of which 1,115 tonnes were Manila clams. There are only 1,165 licenses issued by the DFO for commercial clam harvesting.