It was 7 years since I saw the advertisement for this trip in a catalog from Tofino Expeditions. We had just visited the Galapagos Islands and I was looking for a different company who offered trip there if we wished to return again. Although the catalog did have a Galapagos trip, it was the Haida Gwaii photo of the multi-colored sea stars that captured my imagination. Seven years later and the chance at a last minute deal finally landed us in Burnaby Narrows.
On the tours with Tofino you either start at this at the beginning of the trip or you end at this location as the tour travels north one week and south the next, repeating that pattern until the season is over. On our trip, this was the grand finale on the last day. It was an early morning since we had to be there for low-low tide to really enjoy the bottom of the narrows. We had been camping the night before right around the corner but the evening low tide was a high-low tide and we would not have been able to see much during that time.
We spent about an hour in the narrows until the tide was rising and the visibility was diminishing. During that time we saw moon snails and their casings, turban snails, several types of crabs, jelly fish, and several anemone of which one looked like orange broccoli. The highlight was the many colored sea stars that were densely populated on the ocean floor. The trick of photographing them was a challenge in itself. I took some from a camera on the surface but really needed a special lens to reduce the glare. I had a waterproof iPhone case and I was able to put my phone underwater for adequate photos. I also used my GoPro in its waterproof case to take photos and film the sea life but the trick to that is not to be paddling when filming or everything passes by too fast. Trying many options allowed us to have about 20 decent shots out of approximately 80 so we were happy we have captured something to share with our family once we returned home.
