When Fishing Means More Than Fishing

There are times and places when fishing means more than fishing. There are times and places where being on the ocean in search of salmon or halibut represent much more than trying to catch dinner.

Such times and places have power. Experiences change perspective. When places are profoundly beautiful and experiences are one of a kind, the impact on perspective can be especially meaningful.

Wild places and remote experiences reinforce something within us that is characteristically human. This part of us is fundamental, an essential component to what makes us, us. Our modern world is increasingly digital, increasingly homogenized, and increasingly planned. Our modern world does little to nurture the part of us that takes solace from wilderness and nature.

For many in our society, the wild aspect of our humanity is hidden and atrophied. Though many seldom use it, it remains within each and every one of us. For proof of its existence, consider that even urban teens who have never spent a night outdoors love to watch YouTube videos of people sleeping in snow caves in the woods, eating grouse that they cook over fire. That these types of videos generate seven million views in three days speaks to just how universally we all relate to wilderness.

This aspect of our humanity is part of what makes places like the West Coast Fishing Club so special. And so necessary. The West Coast Fishing Club makes accessible one of the most beautiful, remote and bountiful places in North America.

For more than 30 years the Club has been bringing guests to the Haida Gwaii Islands. These guests experience natural splendor and the extravagance of God’s creation.

Humpback whales, seals, bald eagles. Chinook, coho, halibut and ling cod.

These creatures, these fish and this place make possible much more than a fishing trip. The reconnect us with a part of what it means to be human.

Spending time in places like this is not only good for people. The guests who experience this place—and places like it—create connection. They create kinship. They create feelings that are powerful enough to change perception and generate concern for places that make these feelings possible.

Such connection is good for wild places. In fact, it is among the most important and most powerful assurances that such places might continue to exist into the future.

There are not many places in the world like the Haida Gwaii Islands. Curated, respectful interactions with such places—like those that the West Coast Fishing has been making possible for three decades—are more important now than ever before. 

Salmon fishing is part of the culture of British Columbia. These fish are not only cornerstones of the region’s natural landscapes, but are part of what it means to live here. These fish—and the ability to pursue them in places like this—mean quite a bit to people from this part of the world and from beyond.

There are pressures on these fish just as there is pressure on natural places. The ability to impart curated, interactive experiences with such wild places does not happen by accident. It requires investment, commitment. Logistics and the ability to create lasting processes.

Enterprises like the West Coast Fishing Club—businesses that make sustainable tourism to wonderfully remote places—should be celebrated. We should make it a point to visit them and to enjoy the fruits of their skill, foresight and dedication. That they are in business is the result of passion and commitment—you could never accidentally happen into such things.

They are good for the regions in which they operate. Stable sources of long-term employment, they create tradition around nature’s abundance. To partake in the experiences they provide is to celebrate nature and conservation, culture and tradition. Such businesses act as ambassadors not simply to the places where they operate—not just for the Haida Gwaii Islands, to British Columbia or to Canada, but to the wonder and bounty of the Pacific Ocean.

Companies that make such experiences possible do much for many.

They benefit the natural world at a time when we, as humans, can no longer take for granted the ability to access such places. Such businesses benefit the communities within which they operate, bringing not only investment and employment, but awareness and concern. They also benefit the resources upon which they depend.

For as culturally important and ecologically essential as salmon are to this region, they are pressured on many fronts. The guests who come to this place leave it with not only fishing pictures and perhaps a fillet or two, but with a vested interest in its future.

Such interest is as important as it is profound. Even the best marketing agencies in the world cannot re-create it. It is organic and it is powerful.

It is especially powerful when you consider the clientele that is involved. Leaders of businesses and communities from across Canada, North America and the world. Each invited to not only experience the wonder of this place, but to care about it.

We should celebrate places like the West Coast Fishing Club. We should experience what they make possible. Such experience is as good for us as it is good for the wilderness that makes it possible.

To enjoy wild places is fundamentally human. There are times when fishing means more than fishing.