It’s been a big year on the Big Coast with a whole lotta change going on!
In addition to a move to some incredible new sponsors in Bridgeview and Mercury Marine, Big Coast set up shop and a new home base at Bridgeview Denny Island, aka the Bella Bella Cannery.
Bridgeview Marine purchased the cannery a few years back, right at the same time the Heiltsuk Nation purchased the Shearwater Marina on Denny Island and re-branded Shearwater Wilderness Resort.
Theplace is, after all, in the very heart of Heiltsuk Traditional Territory…in the Heart of Great Bear Rainforest.
The Cannery is a busy place, providing marine service to First Nations, fishing and eco lodges, passing boaters and yachts and just about anything that floats. Activities range from light to heavy marine industrial and Don McNeice and Jackson Raden keep the place humming from Spring through Fall.
It’s an incredible home base for Big Coast, with oceanfront moorage and all the office and accommodation setup needed for the busy season. And as the old saying goes…location, location, location.
Situated on Denny Island, roughly halfway between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, Bella Bella Cannery is the perfect launching pad for nautical adventure in all directions. To the North, we have Klemtu, the BC Inside Passage and Princess Royal Channel, Hartley Bay and Grenville Channel up to Rupert. To the South, a couple hours run finds you in Rivers Inlet, around Cape Caution to Port Hardy and Southbound through Johnstone Strait.
The area is the Heart of The Great Bear Rainforest, and offers world-class boating and yachting, saltwater angling, Indigenous culture and otherworldly wildlife. The area is home to Coastal First Nations and their evolving leadership role in stewardship of lands and waters is helping change the coastal game in these parts. This is the only place in the world to see a Spirit (Kermode) Bear and is home to grizzlies, humpback and killer whales.
The Bella Bella Cannery and Denny Island have always been a fishing draw, with some of the largest Chinook salmon on Earth migrating right by the doorstep. It’s an incrediblezone and couldn’t make for a better home base…sunrise or sunset!
Accessed by private boat or plane, BC Ferries or Pacific Coastal Airlines, Bella Bella and Denny Island remains a must-see in the new world of eco-tourism and wildlife viewing. Shearwater Wilderness Resort is also quickly evolving, offering moorage and full marine services in addition to restaurant/bar, laundry, groceries and whatever else you might need.
Just down the road at Bella Bella Cannery, the Big Coast home base remains a beauty and perfect home to the new Bridgeview BV30 Big Coast Edition with Twin Mercury SeaPro 300hp Outboards. Boating. Fishing. Adventure. Culture.
This is…Big Coast home base!
