Cormorant Island is an island in

Queen Charlotte Strait , image = Canadian pilot, near Port Hardy BC.jpg , alt = , caption = A pilot boat plies Queen Charlotte Strait near Port Hardy , image_bathymetry = Locmap-QCS-Hecate-Dixon.png , alt_bathymetry = ...

on the

Central Coast of British Columbia , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Coast" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = British ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It has a total land area of about 4 square km and is located south of

Malcolm Island Malcolm Island is an island in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located north of Haddington Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait near Vancouver Island. It has ferry access from the Vancouver Island community of Port McNeill Port M ...

and east of

Port McNeill Port McNeill is a town in the North Island region of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada with a population of 2,356 (2021). Located on Vancouver Island's north-east shore on Queen Charlotte Strait, it was originally a base camp for logger ...

. Approximately 954 people (2016 census) live on the island, primarily in the village of

Alert Bay Alert Bay is a village on Cormorant Island, near the town of Port McNeill on northeast Vancouver Island, in the Regional District of Mount Waddington, British Columbia, Canada. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statis ...

and the 'Namgis First Nation. Approximately 60% of persons on the island live on one of the reserves, which together occupy about 30% of the island's land area. The island is accessible by boat or by air.

BC Ferries British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned Canadian company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferr ...

runs a passenger and car ferry between Cormorant Island, Malcolm Island, and Port McNeill which departs from Cormorant Island approximately every three hours during the day. There are two

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

s on the island: Alert Bay Water Aerodrome allows for access via floatplane, while Alert Bay Airport allows for conventional airplanes.

Name origin

The island was named for the paddle sloop HMS ''Cormorant'' in 1846, by that vessel's commander, George T. Gordon. The ''Cormorant'' was assigned to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

Pacific Station The Pacific Station was created in 1837 as one of the geographical military formations into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. The South America Station was split into the Pacific Station and the South East Coast of ...

from 1844 to 1850, and was the first naval steam vessel in the waters of the Pacific Northwest Coast.BCGNIS "Cormorant Island"

References

{{coord, 50, 35, 00, N, 126, 55, 00, W, display=title Islands of British Columbia Central Coast of British Columbia