JUNE 29, 2009 50 WAYS TO SAVE THE OCEAN #1 : Go to the Beach

“When children explore tide pools, pick up and examine seashells along a golden shore, or build sand castles, they often discover a spark of wander that may inspire their life directions, bringing them to science, architecture, engineering, or a range of other callings” (50 Ways to Save the Ocean)

Edmonton, Alberta (Photo source)

I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, a city in the prairies and far from the ocean. I was 6 years old the first time I went to a beach on the ocean. My mother took my brothers and I on a trip to Victoria, British Columbia because, unbeknownst to us, she was thinking about moving us there. We instantly fell in love with this beautiful place, especially the ocean. I remember clearly, when during our visit, my mom took my brothers and me to a wishing well at the Olde England Inn, where we were staying, and we wished so hard we could move to Victoria. The wishing well worked for us because shortly after our visit my mom started planning our move to the west coast. In the fall of 1986 we found ourselves taking in the smells of the Pacific and the flowers of Victoria, our new home, as we crossed the tarmac at the Victoria airport!

My mom was very brave when she moved us to Victoria; she was a single mom in a new place with a new job and three kids. She used most of her pennies to fulfill her dream to move us here and so we didn’t have a lot. During that first year I never noticed we didn’t have much money. Life was fun…one big adventure. On most days, when school was finished, we explored the new city by foot and played at the beach just a half block from our house. We spent countless hours flipping rocks to look at crabs, exploring tide pools and chasing each other with slimy kelp fronds.

Willows Beach, Victoria

To live in a waterfront home was always a dream of my mother’s and soon after our big move to the west coast she met our step-dad and they fulfilled the dream when we moved into a house on Willows Beach in Oak Bay. How lucky we were! We absolutely LOVED living on the beach! The beach became our backyard…I ran on the sandy beach to prepare for future Olympics, constructed log rafts to travel to the South Pacific, enjoyed the accompaniment of gulls and seals, and we hit the ‘high seas’ in our stepdad’s 17’ boat to explore the nearby islands of Chatham and Discovery, fish for salmon and set crab and shrimp pots. We were very lucky because both my mom and step-dad made a point of teaching us to respect the environment and the animals living in it. If it were not for these beach adventures during my childhood I may not have the passion for the ocean I have today.

The beach makes you happy!

Now, even as an adult, I try to go to the beach to observe and explore as often as possible. In this age of information technology it is easy spend hours staring at a screen. I will never get the same inspiration about life from a computer screen; it is the wonderment of the living world that inspires me and my dreams to spend my entire life learning about and caring for the Ocean and it’s inhabitants.

JUNE 27, 2009 50 WAYS TO SAVE THE OCEAN...things we can start doing today to help whales and other ocean inhabitants!

This summer I am working for Five Star Charters, a whale watching company, out of Victoria on the south end of Vancouver Island, BC. I feel blessed to do such work, to be outside on the water everyday seeing these magnificent animals and the habitat they live in.

Mount Olympus as seen from Race Rocks Marine Protected Area

This is not my first season doing this kind of work. In fact, it’s my 8th season doing marine ecotourism and I’ve also done 4 years of research locally and around the world. When guests on the whale watching boat find out I’ve been doing this as long as I have they often ask if I ever get bored of it or of seeing the animals. My answer is always ‘No, never!” because it only gets more interesting the more you are out there. They don’t realize that the one time or for the lucky ones, the 2 or 3 times, they go whale watching they only see a small fraction of what is happening out there. These whales are rarely in the same place doing the same thing but are always on the move…as I tell our guests the killer whales (Orcinus orca) can travel over 100 miles in 24 hours!

Members of K pod in the Endangered Southern Resident Killer whale community: K13 (far right) with her offspring from left to right: K20, K25 and K34

During our tours not only do the passengers enjoy watching the whales but we also tell them about their status and the environment we live in. The thing I like about our approach at Five Star Charters is that we like to talk about the entire ecosystem the animals live in. We explain why the whales are here, what oceanographic processes bring the food in that they eat which in turn brings them in to feed, socialize and breed.

Of course, it is very difficult to discuss the environment without also mentioning what has changed in the environment and what it is that has resulted in the reduced population size of many species of whale that we have today. In the Salish Sea this is especially true for the Southern Resident killer whale population which has been officially listed as Endangered in both the Canada and the US (see US listing info here, Canada designation).

This post is about what we can do as individuals, wherever we live on this great planet, to help the Southern Resident Killer Whales and other whales and inhabitants of the ocean; this includes ourselves who depend very much on a healthy ocean!

Recently I bought a great book called 50 Ways To Save The Ocean and I started to think I want to create blog posts, with full credit to the author (David Helgard of Blue Frontier) about these 50 great ideas. Whenever possible I’d like to add my own personal story of how I have incorporated these things in my life and how that has been for me. It would also be great to hear other people’s stories about taking these simple actions to help ‘save the oceans!”

So keep posted to see how I have and am increasing how I incorporate these 50 ways to save the ocean into my life!

POST #1 GO TO THE BEACH - Enjoy the sand and the water and leave it as clean as or cleaner than you found it... Go to WNU June 29, 2009 blog post

HELP SAVE THE WILD PACIFIC SALMON...sign Alexandra Morton's petition to save BCs wild salmon

On March 30th this year we went to Port Townsend to the first Salish Sea Marine Naturalist Association meeting. This meeting allowed Canadian and American whale watching naturalists and scientists working in the Salish Sea, important habitat for the Endangered Southern Resident killer whale community (Endangered Species Act USA, Species At Risk Act Canada), to meet and discuss our work in this wonderful place. We were fortunate enough to learn the most recent findings from scientists studying the Southern Resident killer whale community and what these findings indicated we need to do to help this population to avoid further decline.

Members of the Endangered Southern Resident killer whale pod, J pod

The most emphasized issue in these discussions was the need to save the wild salmon stocks; the Southern Resident killer whales' main source of food. One of the presenters, a veterinarian, put it nicely...just as with your pet dog or cat, if they are well fed they should be able to deal with any other stress. If the Southern Residents have salmon they will better withstand stresses such as acoustic disturbances and toxins.



So what do we need to do? We need to seriously consider what we are doing about the salmon stocks of the Pacific coast in, not just BC, but all of North America. Just like the killer whales salmon see no boundaries so we need to work together, just as we came together at the Transboundary Workshop in March, to help the salmon.

Chinook salmon...the most important food of the Southern Resident killer whales

One of the most pressing issues related to saving the wild salmon stocks is the impact the commercial salmon farms have on wild fish. Check out and sign this petition from Alexandra Morton to make the BC government act more responsibly in their role to protect this Endangered (under SARA) whale's food...the wild Pacific Salmon!


Newspaper article in the Island Courier
Alexandra Morton's website Adopt-A-Fry

SIGN the petition !