A black bear searching for crabs at low tide

Chuck watches orcas blow off steam in Johnstone Strait

The watery kingdom

Curious wildlife

desolation sound, b.c.
Located 200 miles northwest of Seattle in the Northwest's inside passage, Desolation Sound is a vast wilderness area formed by Vancouver Island to the West and B.C.'s coast range mountains to the East. The area consist of an archipelago of hundreds of small islands and long inlet fjords that reach up between the glaciated peaks of the coast range. Desolation Sound also has the largest marine park in British Columbia., comprising of 8,449 hectares.

Summertime water temperatures are the warmest North of Baja, Mexico, due to the fact that rising tidal waters coming in around both ends of Vancouver meet in this area, resulting in little inflow of cold ocean water. It is not uncommon for August water temperatures to surpass 70 degrees.

wildlife

Marine wildife includes charasmatic megafauna such as orcas, sea lion, dall and harbour porpoise, river otters and ever-present harbour seals.

Land animals include black bears, wolves, cougars, mink, porcupines and foxes.

climate

The central B.C. coast is classified as a temperate rainforest and receives an average of 30 inches of rain a year. Summertime weather however is quite dry, and temperatures range from 60 to 80 degrees. Click here to see the current marine weather conditions from Environment Canada.

links
Raincoast Conservation Society
Cortes Ecoforestry Society
Umiaks
The Sierra Club on Farmed Salmon
Georgia Strait Alliance
Farmed and Dangerous
Wavelength magazine Mt. Denman Account