Providing financial services and business support for BC's Indigenous fishing and seafood commerce.

Usually, on our #WomeninFishingWednesdays# posts we feature strong happy Indigenous women in fishing….This week we’d like to honour our NFA staff (currently all women!) who make it a point to get on fishing vessels at least once a year to learn directly from skippers about the economic challenges and opportunities of their fishing businesses. Thank you to those generous skippers - you know who you are 😉

The NFA staff are also #WomeninFishing#! Understanding your fishing world firsthand helps us serve you better with financial serves and business supports! ... See MoreSee Less

Family/Friends and Fishing Friday

I reached out to a fisherman/harvester who I see working almost year round on our beautiful bounty that the ocean provides Kerby Sampson comes from Lax Kw Alaams and Kitamaat and this is what he shared with me - and has allowed me to shareKerby learned from his grandpa and grandmother from Haisla. He started when he was 9 years old, going to oolichan camp to help make the grease. Kerby started fishing for his grandparents (when they couldn’t go anymore) when he was 21 years old, in Kemano. His grandpa Ron Reece and his grandmother Joyce Reece taught him how to harvest oolichans. He was taught how to prep for boiling and how to boil them to extract the grease. Kerby works with his grandpa Ron Reece, brother Tristan Reece, and his wife Debra Innes. One of my uncles will come whenever they are available. We have a different crew each year becusse everyone working or some passing away, like my grandmother. They get the oolichans in kemano and then take them to our camp where we make grease in Kildala, an hour outside of Kitimat. Kemano is about 8 hours away by gillnet.Kerby mentioned - unfortunately they didn’t get any oolichans this year - so he shared pictures from 2025Thank you, Kerby for sharing ... See MoreSee Less

Family, Friends and Fishing Friday

I talked with a few people about harvesting “Oolichans” The Nisga’a have been harvesting oolichans for many centuries - they used to have 100’s of camps - and now they are down to 8 to 12 camps (estimate) - the first picture is from the early 1900 - in the Nass ValleyI was fortunate to be able to talk to a few guys from this camp - Mitchell Steven’s camp / this camp is made up by family - uncles and nephews There are some pictures of a man teaching his son about preserving / smoking the oolichansThey’ve allowed me to share some pictures from the 2026 Oolichan Harvest ... See MoreSee Less