Fried Eggs and Fish Scales

Longtime fisherman and Sointula resident Jon Taylor dishes up hilarious yarns from his life off northern Vancouver Island.

Capturing the “rough but reasonable” freedom of Malcolm Island, situated off the northeast shore of Vancouver Island, Jon Taylor recounts the bizarre but enticing lifestyle of a fisherman and his remote community—“haywire tightwads” for skippers, rotten fish in the hold that become “three thousand humpies in a warm, pink soup,” and the kind of integrity you don’t often see.

Jon Taylor’s family history on Malcolm Island extends back to 1917, when Taylor’s Finnish grandparents planned to move to the community of Sointula, to live among fellow expats who shared a language and a dream. However, Taylor recounts, upon seeing the island they promptly changed their minds and moved to Cuba. Taylor himself moved to Malcolm Island in 1976 and became a steadfast resident, embracing the fishboat life, for better or worse, aboard seiners, gillnetters and his own troller. Taylor captures a classic but now-disappearing way of life in its heyday with his vibrant and amusing vignettes.