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Last month the coast communities of Ucluelet and Tofino celebrated the Pacific Rim Whale Festival. This annual festival is packed with live entertainment, educational and interpretive programs with a focus on marine life and coastal ecosystems, kids activities, First Nations Cultural workshops, culinary competitions, art, and upbeat celebrations of life on the coast!
Thank you for joining us for another successful festival.
(Read more about the Pacific Rim Whale Festival)
More About Whales!
The Pacific Rim Whale Festival is also the kick off to the whale watching season in Ucluelet. With once-in-a-lifetime encounters with friendly Gray whales, the weeks to follow the festival were very exciting ones In Barkley Sound.
"As usual we cut our engines at 100 metres and were watching a Gray whale when suddenly that individual though 'oh, there's a boat. I think I'll go play!'. Suddenly the whale is beside the boat!" shared Brian Congdon of Subtidal Adventures.
It was the same individual whale that kept coming over to the boat, allowing observers to reach out and touch his cold, wet skin.
"To have an animal that weighs over 35 tonnes, way bigger than the zodiac boat come over to the boat, over and over, and allow us to to reach out and touch them....it's incredible," shared Congdon. "People are so incredibly moved by this experience."
Gray whales like this 'friendly' stick around Barkley Sound feeding on herring spawns. Brian says that many of the whales he sees are resident whales and he has been bringing guests to observe the same individuals year after year.
Is this year YOUR year to have an incredible whale watching experience?
*Photography by Brian Congdon
The 3rd Annual Ucluelet Salmon Ladder Derby
The season long derby that rewards thousands in cash and prizes from May-September (over $60,000 in total cash and prizes last year!), and raises funds and awareness for salmon enhancement is in its 3rd season.
Kicking of May 1st anglers will compete to reel in the biggest fish and be in the top 15 of May, June, July and August. The top 15 of each month, along with the top 50 of the summer, will fish off September 7th and 8th in the FISH OFF for more cash and prizes. Get your derby ticket!
New this year is the chance to win one of two $250,000 Hidden Weight Grande Prizes! Fishing is something you already love...winning of a quarter of a million dollars for catching a big fish...now that's when fishing changes your life!
All proceeds of this event go to salmon enhancement projects like the Thornton Creek Hatchery and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. Details on how you can participate, register, sponsor, donate or WIN $$$ are at www.uclueletsalmonladderderby.com.
*Photo courtesy of the Ucluelet Salmon Enhancement Society.
Upcoming Events:
3rd Annual Ucluelet Salmon Ladder Derby (May 1-Sept 3): Win thousands of dollars by participating in the biggest fishing competition on the west coast! Help the Ucluelet Salmon Enhancement Society reach their goal of raising $10,000 for salmon enhancement projects on the west coast!
The Tofino Shorebird Festival (May 4-6): Find out why the west coast of Vancouver Island is the best place for bird watching as flocks of sandpipers, plovers, Whimbrels, and many other shorebirds pass through the area this time of year! Connect with the natural world through entertaining, educational and interpretive programs.
Edge 2 Edge Marathon (June 10) Have you registered? Participate as a runner or the cheering squad! The Marathon and Relay take place between the two towns of Tofino and Ucluelet. Run on sandy beaches and through lush rainforest, and participate in the festivities that surround this popular destination race!
Surfing, kayaking, rainforest hikes, and beach picnics. Explore west coast art and culture at artisan galleries, unique shops, and through vibrant festivals. Immerse yourself and connect with the natural world.
With summer fast approaching make sure you include a trip to Ucluelet in your summer holiday plans.
Hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
*Editorial by Amy Hancock
This is the kick off to another awesome season of whale and wildlife watching! During the Gray whale migration whale sightings are abundant. Once a local Ucluelet pilot described the view from the sky as "a highway of whales with blow hole sprays as far as the eye can see!"
During the Pacific Rim Whale Festival the Kwisitis Visitor Centre, located on Wickaninnish Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, will be hosting many educational and interpretive events.
As you walk south of the Amphitrite Lighthouse along the Wild Pacific Trail's Lighthouse Loop you will start to catch views of the Broken Group Islands and of Barkley Sound. It is on this portion of the trail, on the southern tip of the Ucluth Peninsula; you can visualise and learn about the Pass of Melfort, a British four-masted barque that went down off that shore. 
Protected by the park, the intertidal zones are home to many different species of sea creatures, crawling critters, plant life, shell fish...the list goes on and on!
I stick to the right and walk up the gravel pathway as it slowly takes me higher and higher, through the thickets of twisted rainforest, and along the rock headlands that shelter Terrace Beach. When I reach the end of the bay that holds Terrace Beach I am high above the water. I can see people who have walked the beach at low tide looking for washed up treasures below me. There is an old staircase that leads down to this beach but I keep walking.
The 
Nature produces [Bernacae] against Nature in the most extraordinary way. They are like marsh geese but somewhat smaller. They are produced from fir timber tossed along the sea, and are at first like gum. Afterwards they hang down by their beaks as if they were a seaweed attached to the timber, and are surrounded by shells in order to grow more freely. Having thus in process of time been clothed with a strong coat of feathers, they either fall into the water or fly freely away into the air. They derived their food and growth from the sap of the wood or from the sea, by a secret and most wonderful process of alimentation. I have frequently seen, with my own eyes, more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down on the sea-shore from one piece of timber, enclosed in their shells, and already formed. They do not breed and lay eggs like other birds, nor do they ever hatch any eggs, nor do they seem to build nests in any corner of the earth.
While the rest of Canada suffers through extreme freezing temperatures and a sometimes seemingly relentless snow fall, our little part of the country is a micro-climate of moderate temperatures making it an ideal travel destination year-round. 
Imagine a forest so gigantic that the people walking through them look like they’ve had a run in with the machine in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”
If you walk down the path from the parking lot to Wickaninnish Beach, take a left and keep walking north along the shore, you will get to the sand dunes. These giant hills of sand are held together by natural grasses and plants and the sand blows off of the beach and is collected in the dunes.
One cloudy day we decided to visit Salmon Beach. We hiked out towards the water at low tide. We had to climb over the jagged rocks, skipping from one to another, searching for the rock with the highest point to catch a better glimpse of the open waters. 
Salmon, halibut, cod, shrimp, crab, clams, mussels, and scallops are all on the menu in Ucluelet.
Have you ever jumped off a cliff-side platform into a canyon with a river raging below?
Outside the December air is cool and thick. It feels like it coats my lungs when you breathe it in. The greens of cedar swags and dewy salal leaves are as vibrant, they look electric. The Wild Pacific Trail falls to shadow in the afternoon, although the days are getting longer now after winter solstice it's difficult to notice much change. Still, I will always find time to hike out to my favourite viewpoint along the Artists Loops section and watch the lazy winter sun set behind the jagged black rocks and into the Pacific Ocean.
Now is a great time to book your fishing charter for the 2012 sport fishing season. Consider it for an awesome Christmas present the angler in your life will absolutely love! Click for more information about 
The Inner Boat Basin, or the Small Craft Harbour, is dug out on the east side of the peninsula with entrance to the Ucluelet Harbour. These working docks are made up of a series of fingers, all providing a safe moorage to commercial fishing vessels, sport fishing boats, sail boats, luxury yachts, and outboard skiffs. Boats are coming in and out of the harbour several times a day, all year round.
It is a summer-long fishing derby that rewards thousands of dollars to participating anglers with all proceeds benefiting the Ucluelet Salmon Enhancement Society and local salmon enhancement projects. In it's first two years running it gave away over $120, 000 in total cash and prizes to happy fishermen and women and donated over $7000 to the Thornton Creek Hatchery.
After about an hour and a half we made it to the peak and to the giant golf ball radar station. The view was stunning! On my left I could see the waters of Barkley Sound speckled with the Broken Group Islands. The mountain range spread out far along the coastline and my eyes could follow it almost to the other side of the sound. Behind me it continued until the mountain peaks grew higher, rockier, and were covered with snow.
ht Ucluelet, a quaint village that is usually fast asleep by 10PM, was buzzing with holiday shoppers, store hoppers, and lots of festive cheer. It was the well-loved community tradition of Midnight Madness, a discount shopping event designed to keep Christmas shopping here in town.
Books, books, books! There are few things I love more than the smell of books and a fresh pot of coffee brewing. Bring that bliss home with a book about west coast culture, legendary history, or with breath taking photography.
The storm is amazing...but there is more to it than just the ugliness. The calm