Journey of Moments

Each season, our guestbooks on board the boats fill with accounts guests have left behind of beautiful words conjured by wild places. This is one of them.

 'Journey of Moments'

Island Roamer at one of the many waterfalls on BC's central coast Photo: Sherry Kirkvold

A"trip" is not just something you "take"
It gives you something in return.
It is a journey of moments.
Those moments:
Create memories
Create awareness
Create understanding and learning of the world we live in.

A slumbering Great Bear Rainforest grizzly Photo: Andrew Wright

That in turn can change your perception:
Of learning who you are,
And who you are not.
It pushes you to new limits of what you believe you are capable of.
Of how you perceive the world.
Of seeing things or people you encounter in a new way.

Exploring an estuary in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest Photo: Marni Grossman

It makes you aware of what is important.
What is REALLY important.
Life...
How do you live it?
What do you see in your future? And the future of the environment around you?
What can you do to change the world to make a positive impact with the time 
That is given to you.

A humpback whale comes for a visit Photo: Lindsay Janes

So travel.
Open your eyes,
Open your mind,
Open your heart,
Open your soul,
And make your journey of moments count!

JM (guest) - Riverton WY 
Aboard SV Island Roamer exploring the Great Bear Rainforest 2018

www.bluewateradventures.ca

An Expedition: Conservation of BC's Salish Sea

An Expedition: Conservation of BC's Salish Sea

Ross Dixon Nov 13, 2018

The Gulf Islands are located in the Salish Sea, a labyrinth of remarkable coastal waterways. From shallow embayments to deep fjords, rocky reefs and soft river deltas, these waters provide countless places for marine plants and animals to live. When these geographic features are combined with varying amounts of sunlight, salt and oxygen, have created a food web so rich that it supported the world’s smallest and largest creatures for millennia. Even more compelling is the extent to which endemic (locally unique and native) species occur on the coast: Two-thirds of the mammal species and subspecies that are found only in BC occur nowhere else in the province but the coast.

Marine Mammals

Twenty-seven species of marine mammals have been observed in the Salish Sea. Thirteen of them can be found regularly. For these animals, the Salish Sea serves a multitude of purposes—feeding, breeding, resting, overwintering, or simply as a migratory corridor. Some species, such as killer whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins, range widely, but others, such as sea otters, are more closely associated with specific areas.

Wings over the Salish Sea

The Salish Sea lies along the path of the Pacific Flyway, a critical migratory route for millions of marine and terrestrial birds that stretches from South America to the high Arctic. The Salish Sea region provides habitat to more than 170 species of marine birds, offering food, shelter, a place to find mates, socialize, moult, and overwinter. Some of these birds are year-round residents and others are visitors as they move around the margins of the Pacific Ocean and beyond. In addition to marine birds, the Salish Sea watersheds are home to land-based bird species. Although no exact numbers are available, roughly 130 species of land-based birds inhabit the terrestrial areas bounded within the Salish Sea watersheds

The People

Dr. Paul Pauquet is recognized as a world authority in conservation science, Paul brings to us over 30 years applied research experience. He has published not only seminal works in Conservation Biology but also broadly using ecological, geographical, and ethical approaches.

Dr Paquet has also worked extensively on real-world management and conservation, which according to him depends largely upon human attitudes. He serves on many international government and NGO advisory committees dedicated to conservation of carnivores, including the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of IUCN-World Conservation Union, the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, WWF International, and the European Union. He is a long-time fellow of World Wildlife Fund Canada. Paul was a founder and director of the Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, Oregon. Most important to Dr Paquet, however, is the contributions he makes as Senior Scientist for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

About Raincoast Conservation Foundation

Raincoast’s mission is to protect the land, waters and wildlife of coastal British Columbia. 

Within the Salish Sea, Raincoast’s conservation efforts include research and advocacy to support the recovery of the endangered Southern Resident killer whale population.  For more than a decade, Raincoast has been using science, public education and the courts to try and protect Canada’s endangered population of salmon-eating killer whales. With their Chinook salmon stocks in serious decline and targeted by fisheries, and a noisy and polluted ocean, they face extinction under existing conditions. The good news is they can recover if these conditions are reversed. Paul has co-authored  two Population Viability Analyses (PVAs) on the SRKWs. A PVA can be a powerful analysis that evaluates and ranks threats to wildlife populations and assesses the likely effectiveness of recovery options. This research shows that SRKW could be functionally extinct (less than 30 individuals) with a century existing under conditions.  Conversely, reducing vessel traffic (small and large boat noise and disturbance) and increasing Chinook abundance increases their likelihood of long-term survival.

Salish Sea Conservation Expedition with 

Bluewater Adventures & Raincoast Conservation Foundation 

Join us this April for a unique trip to explore the Gulf Island’s and Salish with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, a charity dedicated to science-based conservation on the British Columbia coast. Partial proceeds of this trip go directly towards the protection of BC's Salish Sea.

April 23 - 27, 2019 (5 days) $3435 per person 

(+$300 sustainability fee & 5% GST )

Visit www.bluewateradventures.ca for more information or to book.

“Walk softly, Tread carefully, and listen”…

“Walk softly, Tread carefully, and listen”…

 

SGang Gwaay - photo: Tom Stoeri

 

SGang Gwaay – previously named Ninstints (after one of the village chiefs) is an ancient Haida village, located on Anthony Island, at the southern end of Haida Gwaii. Accessible only by boat or plane, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and contained within the National Park Reserve and Heritage Site, Gwaii Haanas. But even if it didn’t boast all the formerly mentioned credentials, it would still remain one of the most magical places on our coast.

One aspect of SGang Gwaay’s magic is the stories that contribute to the village’s history. For several thousand years it was the home of the Kunghit Haida, historically some of the most feared warriors on the west coast. When the small pox epidemic hit in the late 1800’s, SGang Gwaay’s population was decimated from around 300 to 30 and those who survived moved north to Skidegate. The village was abandoned in 1884.

In 1959 a CBC, a crew from the B.C. Provincial Museum and University of British Columbia visited the village to remove several of the Haida poles in order to protect them from the weather and from poaching. Two of the crew members were Bill Reid, world renowned Haida carver and Wilson Duff, Provincial Museum curator. The removed poles were so large that they had to cut them into sections in order to transport. Today you can visit these ancient poles at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology.

Captain Gold - photo: Tom Thayer

Another person whose has been a key player in the recent story of SGang Gwaay is Captain Gold. In the 1970’s he paddled a canoe down from Skidegate to SGang Gwaay, nearly 250 kms of hazardous seas. People thought he was mad – they knew the village was full of the spirits of the ancestors, and couldn’t understand why he’d want to be there alone. But Captain Gold saw the importance being there to welcome visitors and make sure that the village remains were not removed. He single-handedly changed the image of the village and became the proto-type Haida Watchman. By the late 1980’s the Haida Nation decided to send other elders to other uninhabited villages with the same purpose of watching over the area. In 1987 when Gwaii Haanas was officially created, the Haida Watchmen became the figurehead program that employs local Haida, gives youth a chance to learn more about their heritage, and allows visitors a chance to hear the stories from the Haida people, themselves.

SGang Gwaay is indeed a magical place, full of stories, so if you get the chance to visit this incedible village site, heed the advice of Captain Gold’s sister, Haida watchman Irene - “Walk softly, Tread carefully, and listen”…

Join Bluewater Adventures on one of our early Haida Gwaii trips to experience the solitude of SGang Gwaay during the slow season.

 

by Randy Burke

Khutzeymateen, "A Magical Place"

Khutzeymateen, a place I had never heard of, became my first foray into the wilderness.  My apprehension over the word ‘bear’ was soon dispelled as we entered the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Conservatory under the learned ‘Bear Whisperer’ Barrie Gilbert’s tutelage and guidance. We walked their paths, following footprints embedded in the earth, finding their resting places, their rub trees and learned of the biology of these great carnivores.


Grizzly grazing on protein-rich sedge grass

We soon learned that the this place is not just about bears, and that other animals benefitted from this sanctuary as well.  Animals like wolves, wolverines, deer, and others live as they should in surroundings natural to them. Because visits to the Khutzeymateen is limited to few tourists every year, it remains pristine and we soon appreciated that our presence was a privilege. 


Stillness - Khutzeymateen Inlet

We sailed past the outer islands shared by numerous species of birds and bellowing sea lion bulls that were surrounded by their harems. Dall's porpoise flashed past the vessel like a flurry of bullets with orcas in fast pursuit. Great humpback whales surfaced and silently floated past and disappeared, only to later, interrupt our dinner with a spectacular breach. 


Steller sea lion haul out Photo: Terry Carr

During our trips ashore, we examined tidal pools, rich with colourful creatures; we hiked into hidden beaches - some covered in centuries of sparkling, broken sea shells and wildflowers.

We walked sandy beaches - the only footprints being ours and something wild. We climbed craggy hanging bogs covered with succulents, sun dews and mosses and picked berries and edible greens- seen again at dinnertime.

SV Island Odyssey - our home for 7 days

And that unforgettable afternoon, while the sails bellowed, we encountered a Steller sea lion being hunted by transient orcas - an experience that cannot be put into words.

First Nations petroglyph, "The Man Who Fell From Heaven"

Our visit to a coastal First Nations village was an inspiration as we listened to the proud spokesperson sharing century-old tales of his village and its people, the tribal conflicts, the hieroglyphics and the prized petroglyph of ‘The Man Who Fell From Heaven’.

 

The Khutzeymateen, forever imprinted in my memory as a magical place!

 

 

By Lorraine Alden, Guest – Khutzeymateen/ North Coast with Bluewater Adventures