The island's 1,000 residents have traditionally depended on commercial fishing and its spin-off trade for their livelihoods, until government restrictions on salmon fishing devastated their economy putting half the island's labour force out of work. When the federal Mifflin Plan came down, their incomes dried up. This whole north end of Vancouver Island is just a disaster. He says most people are drawing welfare or unemployment insurance and not liking it one bit. Since abalone is threatened with extinction in British Columbia, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is encouraging the development of pinto abalone hatchery technology.
People can just slide right into it.
The co-op is building a hatchery on the uplands. Half the members hope to invest in the hatchery, the others are hoping it will bring them permanent jobs. A former abalone diver and former member of the Prince Rupert Fisherman's Co-op, Mr. Johnstone sees a great potential in farming abalone using hatchery technology from Australia. We've got permission from the government to take what we need for abalone broodstock. That was a big success for the co-op because the government has otherwise banned the taking of abalone.