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The first cannery in BC was built in 1870 in Annieville. Soon, many canneries were being built up and down the coast. With the opening of canneries came the expansion and growth of the commercial fishing industry. Many different fishing methods were used to catch salmon for the canneries. Seine boats, trollers, handliners, and gillnetters all provided the canneries with various species of salmon to process. Most canneries had their own fishing fleets catching fish for them but they also bought fish from independent fishermen.
Until 1911 sockeye was the only species taken for canning purposes, due to the lack of a market for other species. Later, almost every species of salmon was accepted by canneries at one time or another, even dogfish. The species of salmon that a cannery would favour depended on the cannery's location and the demands of the market. During WWII, dogfish - especially its oil which was extracted from the liver of the fish - became an important commodity for canneries. The location and quantity of canneries changed over the years as refrigeration and automation allowed canneries to become larger and more centralized. In the beginning, canneries were most often located near prosperous fishing grounds and First Nations villages. This was due to the lack of refrigeration and the need for skilled labor. The women who worked on cannery assembly lines were mostly First Nations women. These women were very skilled at their job. Often, canneries would hire First Nations men to work in the fishing fleets in order to attract their wives to work for the cannery. Throughout history women have typically been the dominant ones involved in the processing and preparation of fish. For the canneries, women were cheap labor whose small hands made them perfect for deboning and processing the fish. Chinese men were also highly sought by the canneries as labour. Chinese workers had their own bunkhouses at the cannery and would live on site for the canning season. When the season was over most of them would go to Vancouver to find work. Because cannery work usually only took place from June to September most cannery workers worked on a piecework basis.
In the beginning, almost all the work in the canneries, from the making of packing cans to the processing of the fish, was done by hand. This required a large labour force; as a result, Chinese men were often hired to work in the canneries because of their skill with a fishing knife and their cheap rates. Before automation, these men were responsible for cleaning, gutting, and cutting off the heads, tails, and fins of the fish. They would then cut them into can sized pieces. However, after 1906, the Smith Butchering Machine or "Iron Chink", which cut the fish into can sized pieces, was introduced. The name "Iron Chink," given to this type of machine, reflected the racist feelings of the time as the machine replaced the jobs of the Chinese men at the cannery. More advanced "Iron Chinks" would also clean and gut the fish. Other innovations in the industry also occurred. For instance, natural fibre nets were replaced by new lightweight nylon nets that were more durable and easier to handle. These nets, as with the older style ones, were dyed different colours depending on the conditions they were used in. For example, since gillnetters often worked at night, their nets were dyed a dark colour to make them invisible to salmon which would then swim into the nets and get their gills caught.
After the fish had been cut up, the pieces were washed again and sent down the assembly line to the women. From there the women would put the fish in cans and send them down the line to be salted. The cans were then weighed and checked to make sure they were not over or under weight. When they were just right the lids were then put on the cans, they were steam-sealed, and then cooked. Once the cans of fish had cooled they would be labeled and put in packing cases to be shipped off to the consumers. Not all parts of the salmon were used - only the meaty part was kept while the head, fins, tail and guts of the fish were thrown off the wharf to be eaten by waiting dogfish.
The Quathiaski Cove Cannery is an example of the evolution of the cannery industry. It was a small operation built on Quadra Island in 1904 by the Pidcock brothers. It supplied jobs to the neighbouring First Nations peoples as well as to early European settlers coming to the area. The cannery led to the expansion of the commercial fishing industry in the Quadra Island/Campbell River area. However, it did not become a large enterprise until it came under the ownership of W.E. Anderson in 1910. The history of the Quathiaski Cannery illustrates the shift in the canning industry from the existence of many small individually-owned operations, to the formation of a few giant companies composed of numerous small canneries. The Quathiaski cannery was started in 1904 as a small business and was then sold in 1906 and again in 1909 to Atkins and the Quathiaski Packing Company. After it burnt down and was rebuilt in 1910, it was transferred to the Quathiaski Canning Company Ltd. and run by W.E. Anderson until 1938. Anderson also ran the Blind Channel Cannery and owned a commercial fishing trap at Plumper Bay. Under Anderson's management, the Quathiaski Cannery grew and prospered. It also provided a strong local industry that led to the development and growth of the town of Campbell River.
In 1938, the cannery, like so many others of its kind, was sold to a large corporation. The BC Packers owned and operated several canneries along the BC coast - the Quathiaski Cove Cannery was just one of many. In 1941, the cannery accidentally burnt down once again, while workers stood and watched their livelihood disappear in a cloud of smoke. This time, the cannery was not rebuilt. It was not profitable for the BC Packers to reconstruct the cannery, especially as they still had other profitable canneries elsewhere. Unfortunately, this meant the loss of a source of income for many seasonal workers in the Campbell River area. Moreover, the commercial fishermen in the area had to take their fish to another cannery farther away. |
