Entry Island (french: Île-d’Entrée) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

off the east coast of the

Magdalen Islands The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...

, which are part of the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. The island is wide and long. The island is located from the main port of

Cap-aux-Meules Grindstone (local English name, officially Cap-aux-Meules) is a former village municipality located on Grindstone Island in Quebec's Magdalen Islands. The previous municipal government was, on 1 January 2002, incorporated into the urban agglo ...

of the Magdalen Islands. Entry Island is only accessible by ocean or air. The island is also home to an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-speaking community.

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

is the main industry of the island with the

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

fishery being the most important, but some fishermen also harvest

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

scallops Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famil ...

whelk Whelk (also known as scungilli) is a common name applied to various kinds of sea snail. Although a number of whelks are relatively large and are in the family Buccinidae (the true whelks), the word ''whelk'' is also applied to some other marine ...

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

and

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

. Approximately 60 residents reside on Entry Island year around. That is down from 270 in 1980. Visible as the first island when travelling by ferry from Prince Edward Islands to the Magdalen Islands, Entry Island can be identified by its lavishly tinted cliffs. Beautiful, unspoiled rolling green hills are one of the main attractions of Entry Island. At 174 meters (571 feet) above sea level, Big Hill is the highest elevation on the island, and is also the highest point of land in the archipelago. The island has two stores, a restaurant, an

Anglican church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

CLSC CLSCs (''centre local de services communautaires'', local community service centre) in Quebec are free clinics and hospitals run and maintained by the Quebec government. They are a form of community health centre. The service was launched in the e ...

, museum, and post office; a

bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...

operates during the tourist season. In July 2010, a small military exercise called Exercise "SABRE" took place on the island, lasting 18 days. The Entry Island School closed permanently in 2015. The remaining 2 school age students reside on the main islands during the school year and are now attending the English speaking school at .

Transport

A ferry comes to Entry twice a day except Sundays, Christmas Day and New Years Day. When visitors come to Entry Island, after an hour boat ride, they may see more four-wheelers or

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

s (depending on the season) at the pier than cars. There is no gas station on Entry Island. There is a year-round local

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service that transports passengers, mail and freight. Vehicle transportation has to be arranged ahead of time and is limited to one or two vehicles per run. The last ice bridge connecting Entry Island to Amherst Island occurred in 1993. This winter bridge is used by islanders travelling on snowmobiles, horses and even automobiles as well as on foot (for the intrepid) according to winter conditions. The airfield on Entry Island has two paved runways, but it has no scheduled passenger service. There is also a wooden

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

with no further aviation infrastructure at the North-East corner of the island ('). Entry Island is one of three anglophone communities on the Magdalen Islands, the other two being and Old Harry. Entry Island is the only totally secluded community, as the others (anglophone and francophone) are all connected by sand dunes and a highway, Route 199.

In fiction

Canadian children's author Peter Cumming's 1984 picture book ''A Horse Called Farmer'', illustrated by P. John Burden, and the French translation by Henri-Dominique Paratte, ''Cheval des îles'', retell the true story of a 1920's Entry Island horse, as does Stompin' Tom Connors' 1993 song "Horse Called Farmer." Scottish author

Peter May Peter May may refer to: *Peter W. May, American businessman *Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer *Peter May (writer) Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...

's 2013 book ''Entry Island'' is a detective novel mostly set on the island. Quebec author Jean Lemieux's 2009 book ' is a

psychological novel In literature, psychological fiction (also psychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interior characterization and motivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of the characters. The mode of narration examin ...

set on the island. It has been translated into English as The Red Moon (Cormorant Press, 1994) and into German as Das Gesetz der Insel, (Droemer Knaur, publisher). The beginning of the science-fiction novel ''The Odyssey of the Penelope'' ( ' , Aurora Award 1998) by

Jean-Pierre Guillet Jean-Pierre Guillet is a French-Canadian writer born in Iberville, Quebec, in 1953. He received the 1998 Aurora Award for best science-fiction novel in French for the story of an expedition to Mars, ''L'Odyssée du Pénélope''(''The Odyssey of ...

, takes place on the island. Stompin' Tom Connors song "Where Would I Be?" is about Entry.

References

External links

The Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders Entry Island site

Entry Island school
- Eastern Shores School Board *
Magdalen Islands tourist association

including a map (with the French names)
NFB documentary on Entry Island, ''Short Infinity''
- includes info on Canadian screenings {{coord, 47.277, -61.700, type:isle_region:CA, display=title Landforms of Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine Magdalen Islands

Transport

In fiction

See also

References

External links