A clear blue sky and 18 C worth of sunshine provided the perfect setting for a unique exploration of the West Coast’s paradise on Saturday.
The Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is in the middle of its first-ever BioBlitz event.
A 24-hour survey of the Park Reserve’s animal and plant species kicked off Saturday morning and will run through Sunday with locals and visitors invited to participate.
“I’m excited about the biodiversity in this area that we’re going to get to discover and I’m excited that this is one of the nicest weekends we’ve seen yet this year. The weather is amazing today and will be tomorrow,” event organizer Diana Lukinuk told the Westerly News at Wick Beach.
“I’m excited to see lots more people come out and have that chance to reconnect with nature and establish this great species inventory in this National Park Reserve.”
Shuttles carted excited survey participants to the Park’s diverse habitats from a base camp set up beside the Park’s Kwisitis Visitors Centre, which also included a family friendly activity hub.
“All of our family BioBlitz drop in activities have an unlimited number of people. There’s no need to sign up, you can just drop in,” Lukinuk said.
The Ucluelet Aquarium gave excited goers hands on experiences with urchins, anemones and sea stars, while aquarium staffer Keltie Minton dished out information about each animal.
The Vancouver Aquarium sent one of its AquaVan teams to boost the BioBlitz experience and AquaVan manager Catriona Wilson told the Westerly News she and her team were thrilled to participate.
“We have a wide range of artifacts here ranging from the Arctic to the tropics to wetlands and rocky shore BC coasts and they’re things people can learn about, touch and feel,” she said.
She noted Parks Canada is hosting a variety of BioBlitz events across the country this year in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary and said the AquaVan will attend events in the Gulf Islands, Stanley Park, Howe Sound and Cambridge Bay.
“It’s really, really, important to us to help educate people and help them understand the biodiversity that there is here in our amazing country, in all kinds of habitats,” she said. “The more people are connected with aquatic habitats, the more they care about them and the more they will want to protect them.”
Port Alberni local Dave Parsanishi was delighted to find the festivities while touring the Park Reserve with his 8-year-old son Momo.
“We came out to go surfing, but we found this going on so we’re going to check it all out,” he said. “My son is very much into nature and he loves to see this stuff.”
The Wick Beach base camp’s festivities ran from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and will kick back up on Sunday from 9 a.m. until noon.