The news lately has been filled with comments about the sockeye run on the Fraser River and photographs have shown hundreds of fish boats vying for space in the various reaches of the river. This huge run is reminiscent of salmon catches from the past.

Since our family has connections to the fishing industry stretching well back into the 1800s in B.C. and has been recognized, along with a number of other families, as a heritage fishing family, a comment or two on past images of the B.C. salmon industry is in order.

One of the first canneries on the Fraser was in the Sapperton area. It was near the Brunette River and used an old building or two from the Royal Engineers' Camp. In time, there were a couple more on the New Westminster waterfront and another in Queensborough. Across the river, Annieville became a prime site, with its name drawn from the wife of James Syme, a canner and architect.

Down river a bit on Lion Island, Alexander Ewen developed a major site, while across the channel were Glenrose (some buildings are still there) and St. Mungo. Canneries and fish processing plants were concentrated near Steveston at the river's mouth, and there are stories of a couple of dozen businesses lining the riverbank. We could go on for some time with cannery locations, but for now will mention Ladner, Port Guichon, Canoe Pass and Deas Island.

The early fishing boats were open vessels, often rowed to the fishing grounds at the river mouth or upstream. Usually two men fished from these boats, sometimes using a small sail to move a bit faster from place to place, the catch from their nets then filling the boat itself as they struggled back to the dock.

In some areas of the coast, these small fishing boats were towed, many at a time like a parade, by small steamboats.

Favourite photographs of this time period show thousands of these boats fishing at the mouth of the Fraser, and the huge catches of salmon being off loaded onto the docks for processing. Other related photos show workers in the canneries cutting the fish and filling the cans. Photos of this action usually show women and men, First Nations, Chinese and sometimes Japanese.

Of course it is important to remember that for many thousands of years, the salmon of the river that we now call the Fraser was, as it continues to be, a staple of the First Nations who lived near this river. This was the food source the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Langley wanted to trade with the world.

As you watch today's fishery unfold, read about this industry and its history. It is a great story and an important part of this city's past.