For my dad’s birthday this year, rather than invite a bunch of friends over for a big summer BBQ, my dad decided that he wanted to spend some quality time with just the family. He asked my mom to come up with a fun idea and that this was what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday. So, with this request in mind, my mom drove down the beautiful Cowichan Bay, on Vancouver Island and booked a whale watching tour for our family of five with Ocean Ecoventures.

We arrived at the very cool storefront location, which doubles as an art gallery, and were given our thick, warm, full-body, wind proof, Helly Hansen flotation suits, and were asked to suit up for the day’s adventure. It was the first really hot day of the summer, at the beginning of July, so the need for the suits didn’t seem to make sense just then, but once out on the water they were definitely needed.

Once suited up, we all made our way down to the dock where the whale watching zodiac was moored and were given a quick but detailed safety lesson for the trip by Simon Pidcock, owner / operator of Ocean Ecoventures. Before taking off, he took a group shot of all of us in the 12-seater boat and off we went!

We barely left the harbour and we already caught our first glimpse at ocean wildlife. A harbour seal swam by about twenty feet from the boat!

After about a 45 minute boat ride (with gorgeous B.C. views), we arrived to the area where the whales tend to hang out and play around. Simon told us of all kinds of facts, behaviours and statistics about the whales. He was very knowledgeable and much of the information was astounding!

But whales were not the only wildlife we saw on the trip. After watching and following the whales for a couple of hours, we started to head back to Cowichan Bay and he took us into a kelp bed, where he showed us that kelp is amazingly strong, and that it has an unbelievable growth rate, as well as many benefits to the ocean and its’ creatures. We even took a kelp leaf out of the water and ate it. Yep, it’s edible! Surprise, surprise, it was salty!

Other creatures we came across were a Bald Eagle and its nest, a couple of Ospreys and their nest of young, and of course a whole bunch of seals hanging out on the logs.

All in all an AMAZING experience! Unreal photographic opportunities! And we were lucky with phenomenal weather!

If you are planning a trip to Vancouver Island and are looking for a fun adventure, an Ocean Ecoventures Whale Watching tour with Simon Pidcock should definitely be on your vacation itinerary!

A few tips for your trip:

• Bring your best camera and best lens for the trip. Don’t do what I did and leave the super lens at home and miss out on some awesome shots! I was afraid my gear would get wet, so I left it behind, but not a drop of water made it inside the boat! (kicking myself!)
• Wear SUNSCREEN! Even on a cloudy day you are susceptible to getting a sunburn.
• Bring sunglasses and a hat to wear while floating around, watching the whales.
• Wear closed toed shoes.
• Bring a bottle of water.
• Ask lots of questions, Simon knows his stuff!

For more information about Ocean Ecoventures, visit their website at oceanecoventures.com.
Follow Ocean Ecoventures on Twitter at @oceaneco.
Check out some of Simon’s photography on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/oceanecoventures.

Ocean Ecoventures Whale Watching
1721 Cowichan Bay Road, Cowichan Bay
Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Local – 250 748 3800
Toll Free – 1 866 748 5333