Sunday, August 16, 2009

Ucluelet Wildlife

The area around Ucluelet is prolific with all kinds of wildlife. In our 4 days in Ucluelet we saw black bears, bald eagles, Ollie the Otter, countless seals and sea lions and many Humpback whales. Every kind of sea bird possible was viewed over the four days. The area truly has an abundance of wildlife. If you are wanting to view wildlife, I certainly would recommend Ucluelet to you. The neat thing is that there is a lot more we didn't see. More time would have remedied that. Enjoy the wildlife video. For more information on Ucluelet, click here.

Whale Watching in Ucluelet BC

During the spring and summer Ucluelet is home to a large whale population. Grey whales migrate past Ucluelet and Humpbacks come to feed on the plentiful fish. Grey whales and other whales also come into these waters. On this trip we only saw Humpbacks. Most of the time they cruise the surface and just break their backs out of the water. Occassionally, they dive deep and give a good look at their tail. While we were in the Broken Group Islands just outside of Ucluelet Harbour, we ran into the "energizer bunny" of whales. This one whale put on a show of a lifetime. In over an hour he must have done 25 full breaches and a whole pile of tail slaps. He would also roll over and wave his fins in the air. He was amazing. I found out that it was pretty hard to get good stills and even harder to get good video of these whales. When they were close to us my battery died. I hope you enjoy the shots I did get. For more information on activities in Ucluelet, click here.

Wild Pacific Trail - Ucluelet BC

If you travel to the West Coast of Vancouver Island be sure to visit the amazing town of Ucluelet. They have an outstanding oceanside trail that is called the Wild Pacific Trail. It has a large number of overlooks where you can get really good views of the surrounding ocean. You can even see the whales that pass by. Whatever else you do, be sure you take in this trail. It has a short circle route of 2 km and longer routes up to about 8 km. View after view awaits you and they are spectacular as you will see in the video. It is even amazing in the fog.
Check it out.
For more information on Ucluelet, click here.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Salish Sea presented at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney BC

Just below the surface of the ocean around Vancouver Island you will discover a world like no other. It is amazing as you will see in the attached video. This is just a small sample of what you will see when you attend the Shaw Ocean Discovery in Sidney BC. You will see Octopus with tentacles as long as your body, wolf eels with jaws so strong they could break broomsticks, many varieties of amazing starfish from the 23 leg version to the small brittle stars that crawl along the bottom, and beautiful anemones and so much more. All of this can be viewed on a giant movie screen and much of it is live in displays throughout the centre. There is also a touch pool where you can feel many of these amazing creatures. Do not miss this amazing attraction in Sidney BC.

Find out more about the Ocean Discovery Centre,
click here.