Sea Watches

The Western Salish Sea Watch started in by Rick Toochin with his first trip to the Sheringham Lighthouse in Shirley in May 2006.  Over the next four years Rick Toochin and Louis Haviland worked out the best places to watch the ocean and worked out the best times to go to view ocean birds with the sea watch continued to 2015. There are several locations that were adequate to sea watch including: the overlook at Beechy Head, the waters off Whiffin Spit, Otter Point overlook, waters off Gordon’s Beach, waters off Muir Creek, the waters off Jordan River, the waters off French Beach, the waters off China Beach, the waters off Sombrio Beach, and the harbour area around Port Renfrew. We found these locations limited in what was found. As a result, we did almost all our sea watches from the overlook at the Sheringham Lighthouse in Shirley and the overlook at Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew. For tubenoses and specific seabird species the data does mention other areas, but the focus of the data will be almost entirely on what was observed from Sheringham Lighthouse in Shirley and Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew. Both areas were ideal as they not only were close to the ocean but provided us height to look way offshore. The sea watches were conducted during both good weather and extremely rough weather. If observers try to go out on extreme weather days safety and precautions must be taken as it can be dangerous dew to falling trees and flying debris. These results can be duplicated by anyone willing to be dedicated enough to go out in miserable weather. 

Downloads

  • Salish Sea Seawatches Toochin and Haviland 2024 .pdf 2.4 MB