Marine Ecology

Marine Life

The shallow waters of the continental shelf around Ucluelet are home to a wide variety of marine life.  From the smallest phytoplankton to large whales, each group provides food for the next group higher up on the food chain.  The abundant sea life includes shellfish, herring, salmon, seabirds, harbour seals, sea lions, orcas and gray and humpback whales.

Undersea landforms, such as the large La Pérouse Bank off Ucluelet, can shift water currents to bring nutrients from the depths to the surface.  This has made the waters off Ucluelet a productive area for fishing and an attractive wintering ground for pelagic seabirds such as Sooty Shearwaters and Black-footed Albatross.

Low tides along the shore expose a wide variety of sea creatures in tidal pools and beneath the sand.  Mussels, limpets, anemones, sea urchins, and starfish cling to the rocky shoreline, and shellfish, such as crabs, clams and oysters, live in the muddy sand.  Please be sure to check for red tide locations and harvesting rules before gathering these species for consumption.

Whales

The springtime migration of 20,000 Gray Whales (Eschschrictius robustus) from Baja California past the west coast of Vancouver Island has spawned a human migration to the Ucluelet area.  The yearly Pacific Rim Whale Festival in March is a celebration of the whales and brings many tourists into the region for whale watching.

Gray whales are baleen whales and were almost made extinct by hunting in the early 1900’s.  Their numbers have recovered since 1947 when hunting was banned.

Along with the Gray whales, humpback whales are also seen occasionally and orcas also swim in the area.  Many whale watching companies are available from Ucluelet.

For more information on the Marine environment of the west coast, go to:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul2_e.asp