On the Expedition
Help protect Pacific grey whales by tracking them in their summer feeding grounds.
Join gentle grey whales in their Canadian summer feeding areas in Clayoquot Sound and surrounding waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island to help researchers design better ways to protect them and see if they’re being affected by climate change. Spend days on the water in a sea-kayak or on a converted fishing boat searching for whales and mapping their prey with sonar and underwater video. Learn how to identify individual whales, record data, and assist with navigation. Spend time in the lab digitizing and analyzing photographs of whales, and matching photos to a database. Unwind by exploring coves and islands by kayak, or by enjoying the maritime charms and rich First Nations culture of the small village of Ahousaht, on Flores Island, where you’ll be based.
Meals and Accommodations
You’ll stay in a rented youth hostel in the village of Ahoushat on Flores Island, not far from Vancouver Island’s Tofino. The rustic but comfortable hostel accommodates 18 people in three dorms and a double room in its upstairs sleeping quarters. Downstairs it's got a big kitchen, a shower/toilet/laundry room, and two huge living rooms which serve as social and laboratory space; it has hot and cold running water and reliable electricity.
Outside, you’ll find a big floating dock, a salmon smoker, and a workshop. Next door there's a general store, a fueling barge for boats, and a small restaurant. When not out in the field, you’ll refuel yourselves with hearty meals from the hostel’s big kitchen, and may participate in some cooking and clean-up duties.
About the Research Area
Flores Island is a small island (approximately 150 km²) in Clayoquot Sound, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The island is located within the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District. The village of Ahousaht is the only major settlement on Flores, which is home to many members of the Nuu-chah-nulth (or Nootka) First Nation. Flores Island can only be accessed by boat or seaplane. The main industries on Flores and in Ahousaht are forestry, fisheries (including shellfish and finfish aquaculture), and tourism, including a growing eco-tourism and whale-watching industry; environmental tourism is also promoted locally by the Walk on the Wildside hiking trail.
Grey whales are found throughout this zone in the summer months, most often in or near kelp beds along the shore. Days are long in summer, often ending in spectacular sunsets over the Pacific. Clayoquot Sound is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North; the Sound has many inlets and small islands.
The land around Clayoquot Sound includes vast ancient coastal temperate rain forest, rivers, lakes, marine areas and beaches. Clayoquot Sound contains the largest area of intact (unlogged) temperate rainforest left on Vancouver Island, and the regional watershed is home to wolves, black bears, cougars, grey whales, orcas, porpoises, seals, sea lions, river otters, raccoons, bald eagles, osprey, Marbled Murrelets, Pacific Loons, and Roosevelt Elk.