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Great Pacific Ocean

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Great Pacific Ocean

We offer ecotourism services in Ucluelet BC, including glamping cabin rentals, Ucluelet-Bamfield water taxi, scuba diving charters and biological surveys.
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04/10/2023

It's been really fun working with so many talented underwater photographers lately. I've had to develop my modeling skills and perfect my zoolander blue steel 😗 Here's a couple of great shots from while working on our reef cleanups.

04/07/2023

I was excited to see this little cutie lounging in front of my acreage. Sea otters have been steadily expanding down the west coast of Vancouver Island and it seems like Barkley Sound may be next on the list. I'm hoping they might be a common sight from my glamping cabins in a few more years since there's a beautiful and relatviely sheltered kelp forest for them right in my front yard!

04/04/2023

Spring always feels like a very productive time out at my acreage. The herring have mostly hatched, filling the near shore with tiny larvae. While the salamanders have just begun laying their egg masses in my creek. It's very satisfying to watch them grow over time and I hope they have everything they need for the best shot at a good life 🐟🐟🐟🦎🦎🦎

03/24/2023

We had another challenging but successful ghost gear dive on an offshore rocky pinnacle. We had to wait for the calmest day possible but still had to deal with some decent swell and currents. We managed to push through and salvaged another 520lbs of lead fishing weights. Most of them were different from the usual sport fishing cannonballs we tend to find so if any of my fisher friends have any ideas of what the smaller oval weights might have been used for please let me know. They ranged from about 1-5lbs and most seem pretty big for sport jigging so wondering if they might be from an old commercial rockfish or lingcod fishery? Thanks to Andrew McCurdy for taking the photo of me with the lead pile we collected!

03/20/2023

Checking out the herring spawn in my front yard 🐟🐟🐟🥚🥚🥚

03/14/2023

My ghost gear crew and I were able to salvage another 1500lbs of lead and various plastic sport fishing debris last weekend. That brings our total so far to over 5000lbs of lead removed from just a handful of small local reefs. Makes me wonder how much lead we are ingesting when we harvest lingcod, scallops or other marine animals that spend their lives living and foraging among 1000s of pounds of exposed lead...

03/12/2023

On our way back from our ghost gear work in Bamfield I was so excited to find a big shoal of herring spawning right in front of my acreage/glampsite! We left them to have their sexy time in peace but I'm looking forward to heading back out today to watch all the critters come by for a feast from one of my barrel cabins. Feeling so blessed to live in such a wild and rich place 🥰🐟🐟🐟

03/05/2023

We successfully retrieved another 42 derelict crab traps on our last 2 days working in the harbour. This brings our total to 125 crab traps and over 7500ft of rope removed from just a small section of Ucluelet Inlet. There's definitely still more down there but we feel like we've made a solid dent in the number of ghost fishing traps that could otherwise continue to kill our local crab populations 🦀🦀🦀

03/02/2023

The recent cold spell and snow storm made our ghost gear work pretty challenging, we were even diving in ice flows in the inlet! 🥶 Luckily the sunshine finally came back in full force and made for much more pleasant working conditions 🌞

02/20/2023

We've been salvaging lots of large marine batteries that have been carelessly discarded off every public dock we've worked at for our ocean cleanups so far. I just can't imagine why someone would feel comfortable polluting our shallow harbour right where countless families go to fish with their kids. The batteries are full of harmful heavy metals and toxic chemicals and can be recycled for free nearby or even sold to private metal recyclers for the valuable materials inside in some cases.

02/19/2023

We successfully removed another truck load of harmful debris from Ucluelet Inlet. 14 crab traps, 4 nets, and 2000ft of rope. We are making sure that as much gear as possible is either re-used or properly recycled and are grateful to have one of the Ocean Legacy plastic recycling depots near Ucluelet.

02/14/2023

Breath of the wild

02/12/2023

Andrew the octopus whisperer gently releasing a sweet little red octo during our ghost gear retrievals 🐙

02/10/2023

My crew and I were excited to restart our ghost gear ocean cleanup efforts this week. We had a productive day in Ucluelet Inlet and managed to remove another 25 old crab traps, many of which were actively ghost fishing and killling crabs. We also pulled out a large gillnet, 1500ft of rope, 4 marine batteries, and various other debris.

01/15/2023

I find myself drawn to kelp forests a lot lately so was happy to do some dive work for a local kelp farm. We lucked out with a pretty great little weather window too 🌤

01/12/2023

All of these dreary rainy days makes me appreciate the few sunsets that we get to enjoy. This one from a few days ago was a real treat 🤩

01/07/2023

I had a great time diving off Hornby Island for a kelp forest research project. It's always nice to see some charismatic megafauna along the way 🙂

12/30/2022

I think I need to go dive for sunken treasure in front of my condo!🌈🏅👑

12/24/2022

Happy holidays everyone ☃️🎄🎁 Hope you are all staying safe and cozy with this wild weather lately and enjoying some well earned down time.

12/17/2022

Enjoyed a fantastic dive trip with a rare winter day of calm seas and sunshine ☀️❄️ Had to do a lot of ice breaking with the boat to get out of the harbour but definitely worth it! Glad to have a couple of photogenic sea huskies help out with boat tending too 😉

12/13/2022

So far my janky sea lion fence is working great! After a few initial breakthroughs and subsequent reinforcing I haven't seen one on the dock for the past month even though there's still a ton of them right next door 🤞

12/12/2022

I feel like my pier really needs a slip and slide while my dock is tucked away for the winter. Only on high tides though to avoid a pretty rocky landing.

12/10/2022

Out for a stroll along the rocky coastline across the street 🌊🪨

12/07/2022

Well it's not as warm as Kauai but glad we also have beautiful beaches and delicious poke back home in Ukee! Bonus points for empty parking lots and no crowds this time of year 🙂

12/05/2022

Winter wander through the Kelp Forest Wilderness Retreat

11/30/2022

I should have stayed in Kauai 🌞🥶

11/22/2022

So happy to get to explore another beautiful spot in the great pacific ocean! 🏝⛰️🌊🍍

11/16/2022

We managed to remove another load of ghost fishing crab traps and line from the ocean on Monday. Our tally so far includes close to 50 traps and over 2000ft of line from just a small section of Ucluelet Inlet. Hopefully this decreases the chances of marine mammals and other animals getting entangled in the area 🐋🦭🦀🐟🐙🐬

11/12/2022

We conducted more successful ghost gear dives over the past few days and managed to remove over 2000lbs of lead from a few local foraging reefs! Also lots of other plastic sport fishing gear, as well as a bunch of monofilament line and steel cable that can entangle and kill marine animals if left in place. Lots of hard work but very satisfying 😊

11/10/2022

Another beautiful day at the office, perfect conditions for heading across the Sound for more ghost gear retrievals! Calm, sunny and a whaley welcome party ☀️❄️🐋

11/08/2022

Every year an unimaginably large amount of fishing gear is lost in the ocean and can continue to damage marine species and habitats for a very long time. I was very excited to receive funding through DFO's Ghost Gear program to expand on my annual reef cleanups here in Barkley Sound! Along with our fantastic crew of commercial/scientific divers and boat tenders we've already managed to retrieve over 2000lbs of derelict crab traps, rope, monofilament line, netting, tires, boat batteries and other harmful debris. We will also be conducting environmental surveys with underwater photography and videography so that we can hopefully shine a light on the scale of our local ghost gear problem.

10/30/2022

Sea lions took over my dock again while I was out of town 😠 Had to build a fence around the whole thing to keep them off. Westcoast problems...

10/25/2022

Definitely feels a bit more like fall these days but its nice see a bit of contrast in the weather too ⛈️☀️🌈

10/23/2022

More fun with fish 🐟

10/08/2022

Fantastic sunsets this past week 😍

09/28/2022

Striped perch photo bombing a cabezon

09/26/2022

I'm very happy to support the ongoing research and conservation efforts of the Kelp Rescue Initiative here in Barkley Sound. We had a successful mission filming some local kelp forests despite the poor visibility and collected some samples for genetic analysis.

09/11/2022

Pretty excited to enjoy the full sunsets on the outside of the peninsula again

09/09/2022

I was happy to help out with a beach clean up on an island down the block from me. Always a bit shocking to see how much junk washes up even in remote places but feels very satisfying to clean it up.

08/28/2022

A few shots from my home base and glampsite this week

Address

Whiskey Dock 180 Main Street
Ucluelet, BC
V0R3A0

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Videos

I've been diving and working in marine biology for so long that it seems rare these days to come across something so unique right in my backyard! I've seen chains of salps before but these were much bigger than usual and particularly beautiful floating in the sunshine 🙂

Soaking up the sunshine in one of my favorite kelp forests 🌿☀️

Relaxing swim with a big school of rockfish 🐟🐟🐟

More fun with fish 🐟

Saying hi to my fishy friends

🐙 Apparently I missed world octopus day yesterday! Cephalopods are one of my favorite groups of animals and are very deserving of our respect and attention. Here's one of my favorite clips that I shot a few years ago not far from my acreage 🐙

Striped perch photo bombing a cabezon

Kelp Forest Surge Channel

Had an amazing time swaying with the kelp in some nearby surge channels! So impressive how robust they are, especially the big feather boas. This was about as calm as it gets so it must be pretty intense on stormy days.

Lingcod

Saw lots of lingcod on my last dive. Hate to see them leave, but love to watch them swim away ;)

Sunrise commute

My morning commute was a bit bumpy but got to enjoy a sweet sunrise along the way 🌅

Momma lingcod

Beauty momma lingcod with a belly full of eggs

Fisb

Fishy friends 🐟🐟🐟

1

Pretty sweet commute out to my acreage. So nice to see the sun after all the crazy rain in November 🌞

Kelp greenling couple

It was neat to run into a lovely kelp greenling couple spending some quality time together 🙂 They are one of the few sexually dimorphic species of fish that we see out here with females being bright orange and the males blue/brown.

Wolf eel

Beautiful wolf eel in a very colourful den :) I love how my video lights bring back all the vibrant colours and let me to enjoy them during the dive as well. Such a candyland down there!

Lingcod and cabezon

Saw tons of lingcod and cabezon hanging out on the reef. They are so beautiful and agile when you get to see them in their natural environment instead of flopping on a boat.

School of rockfish at Twin Peaks seamount

Swimmin with the fishes 🐟🐟🐟

Ukee sunset

Very excited for extended sunshine this weekend after last week's storms 🌞

As the sun sets on another summer season I have decided to discontinue my tourism services for the year. This has been a busy but very challenging season filled with both postive and negative experiences. With the 4th wave of covid-19 getting more severe I believe an abundance of caution is the best course of action and we should all do our part to hopefully end the pandemic as soon as possible so that we can avoid the constant cycles of hardship it has caused. I am so grateful to all the wonderful customers who supported my business after losing most of the 2020 season. This felt like one of the busiest seasons but also seemed to cause a lot of dysfunction as well. The ongoing housing and staff shortage has made it very difficult for local companies to keep up with the intense demand. We had so many cases of visitors being rude, destructive and impatient and I had to deal with numerous incidents of vandalism and tresspassing on my boat and property as well. I realize that we are all stressed out from the state of the world but I firmly believe that kindness, compassion and mutual respect should be our default until given a very good reason to behave otherwise. If you have the option I would highly recommend planning your visit outside of the peak summer season of July-August. Your overall footprint would be greatly reduced and your positive impact on the community would be greatly improved by providing economic benefits when local businesses could really use it. Early fall and late spring are pretty mild seasons out here and the winter storms are a particularly awesome experience. I will be spending the off season focusing on friends and family and reflecting on how best to move forward with my company. Environmental conservation and sustainability are very important issues to me and the summer heat waves, droughts and fires are weighing heavily on my mind. I hope to prioritize my most sustainable services and discard those that require an excessively large c

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Ocean Adventure Services

We offer ecotourism services in Ucluelet BC, including kayak and canoe rentals, scuba diving charters, nature tours and water taxi to anywhere in Barkley Sound. We specialize in custom paddling trips to the Broken Group Islands in Pacific Rim National Park.

Nearby travel agencies

Cameron Ocean Adventures
Dock 2 Whiskey Landing

Other Eco Tours in Ucluelet

Ananda Adventures
Hemlock Street/Finger "F"
Spyhop Ocean Adventures
V0R3A0
Subtidal Adventures
Peninsula Road

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