Overview:
Steveston

Home to almost 1,000 commercial fishing vessels, historic Steveston Village is the largest commercial fishing harbor in Canada.   Along the waterfront, you can enjoy the comings and goings of coastal fish boats while dining at one of the many waterside eateries, or buy salmon, crab, halibut and shrimp directly from the fishing vessels.

Steveston is busy seaside hamlet with quaint gift stores and antique shops, but the village of yesteryear was very different. Once the busiest fishing port in the world, Steveston’s fourteen fish canneries packed over 195,000 cases of salmon each year and every summer, the community would swell by the thousands as Natives, Chinese and Japanese laborers arrived seeking seasonal work. A hybrid language evolved, called chinook, and a common lifestyle involved gambling, opium-smoking and busy bordellos. Today, vestiges of that bawdy, rough and tumble lifestyle can still be seen. 

At the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, a new 40-seat Boiler House Theatre uses multimedia to tell the story of the ‘monster cannery’ which once heralded Steveston as the sockeye capital of the world.  Exhibits, interactive displays and guided tours offer a rare chance to discover the history of the West Coast fishing industry. The best parts of the 1894 cannery-turned-historic-site (designated in 1994) are the herring reduction equipment - used to press herrings from 1940-1979 - and the net making demonstrations.

Built in 1889-90, Britannia Heritage Ship Yard  is the oldest remaining cannery and shipyard on the Fraser River. Designated a National Historic Site, the site includes 9 buildings, of which 4 are open to the public. Here you can watch volunteers restoring old wooden seaworthy vessels, using traditional methods, and learn about the people who lived and worked at Britannia.