Green Tourism Archives - Kingfisher Wilderness Adventures Kayak Tours

Responsible Wildlife Viewing

Responsible Wildlife Viewing

With the worldwide increase in wildlife viewing tours it is more important than ever to ensure that wildlife viewing is done responsibly, with little to no impact on the wildlife being viewed. Joining a guided kayak tour can be a low impact and responsible way to view whales and other wildlife.

With some knowledge and respect for wildlife, the slow speed, quiet nature, and ability to access shallow water close to shore make kayaks ideal crafts for viewing wildlife. However, these same characteristics can also cause kayakers to more easily disturb wildlife if not done properly.

The main goal when viewing any wildlife should be to ensure that our actions do not cause the animal to change their normal behaviour. For example, from a silent kayak it is often easy to surprise sea lions hauled out on rock basking in the sun or to scare an eagle away

Andrew Jones2018-12-31T15:51:26-08:00Green Tourism, Marine mammals, wildlife viewing|

Kayak Photography – Charging Your Camera

Kayak Photography – Charging Your Camera

A big challenge facing photography on multi-day wilderness kayak tours is having the ability to recharge your camera. This is not a problem on our Orca Waters Base Camp kayak tours because we have a camera recharging station but on longer expedition style kayak tours it is more challenging.

The camera recharging stations at our base camps consist of solar panels, 12-volt deep cycle batteries, and AC/DC power inverters. With this set up cameras can be charged via USB cables or with a regular 110 volt plug-in wall charger. Please bring your own charging cables and if you are visiting from outside North America ensure you have a North American plug adapter if using a plug-in wall charger. The amount of power generated by the panels and stored by the batteries is limited but generally more than sufficient for charging cameras and our guides’ safety communication devices. However, there is not enough power to

admin2017-03-27T10:33:12-08:00Green Tourism, Helpful hints, Photography|

Good Food

We believe that some of the most important aspects of a kayaking tour naturally include the kayaking itself, the wildlife, and the wilderness experience. However, we also know that these experiences are more enjoyable when accompanied by good food. At Kingfisher we serve hearty, healthy, and tasty meals. We are also happy to cater to a wide variety of dietary preferences and restrictions. Furthermore, we believe that our food is good because when planning and purchasing our menu we are striving to choose environmental and ethical options, which includes growing our own, buying local, reducing packaging waste, and choosing fair trade and organic when possible.

Picking raspberries to top our base camp cheesecakes

Meat, Eggs, and Dairy

We serve wild, BC-caught salmon and halibut, buying it straight from local boats when

admin2017-03-27T11:13:36-08:00Green Tourism|

Humpback Whale Disentanglement – Fundraising Challenge!

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When Kingfisher started offering kayak tours eighteen years ago we considered ourselves fortunate to see one humpback whale a year. Since that time the humpback population has made a remarkable comeback and we now see humpback whales almost every day on our kayak tours off northern Vancouver Island. While their numbers have grown, they still face many threats and one of the most serious is getting entangled in fishing nets and gear. Entangled whales face the risk of drowning, losing the ability to feed, or getting infections as gear cuts into their flesh, all too often ending in death for the whale.

For the last three years our friends at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS) have been present whenever possible when commercial fishing is taking place around Northeastern Vancouver Island

admin2018-04-12T15:08:35-08:00Green Tourism, Humpback Whales, Marine mammals|

Beach Clean Ups

The great thing about kayaking is we can visit remote hard to reach beaches that few people visit. At first glance many of these beaches look pristine, but on closer examination traces of civilization can often be found in the plastic, styrofoam, and garbage that floats in on the tides.

When we find garbage we pack out what we can in our kayaks, especially stryrofoam as it can break down into tiny prices that are next to impossible to collect if left in the elements. On our base camp tours our kayaks are not heavily packed so there is lots of room and on our explorer tours we create more room in our kayaks as the trip progresses and we eat through our supplies.

When unable to pack out items in our kayaks we will collect garbage (especially Styrofoam and plastic) and securely pile it above the tide line and notify the

admin2017-03-27T11:29:41-08:00Green Tourism|

RideShare – Travelling to and from Port McNeill

Many of our guests are interested in ride sharing to and from their kayak tours to lower their environmental impact, to save costs, and for the enjoyment of meeting other travellers. For years we have helped facilitate putting together guests looking for rides with guests who had seats available in their cars. We would do this on a case by case basis and it was often time consuming and not always the most user friendly for our guests. As of today that has changed.

We have just launched an easier method of putting our guests together to share rides to and from Port McNeill, and have also invited other travellers and the local community to participate too.

Whether you are looking for a ride or have a seat available for others to fill, visit our RideShare page and enter your details.

To learn more about Kingfisher Wilderness Adventures’ kayak tours that

admin2017-03-27T11:24:08-08:00Green Tourism, Port McNeill|