We're on a mission: celebrating life on the coast!
The Pacific Rim Whale Festival celebrates the continued protection and annual return of migrating Pacific grey whales to the coastal waters of the communities of Tofino, Ucluelet and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. An estimated 20,000 grey whales make the journey each year from the Baja Peninsula’s breeding and calving lagoons in Mexico toward their summer feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas near the Arctic. Marking the official opening of the area’s prime whale watching season, The Pacific Rim Whale Festival includes an array of cultural, culinary, musical, and educational events.
The Whale Festival is proud to present a variety of informative presentations, slideshows and interpretive walks that will provide people with a greater understanding about grey whales, other marine mammals, and the ocean and rainforest ecosystems. Guest presenters will talk about Nuu-chah-nulth whaling, sea lion biology, sea otter recovery, marine mammal emergency response and much much more. It's one of our favourite things about living here - there's so much to learn about, and so many amazing people to share their knowledge! We strive to bring together a line-up of guests and residents on a range of topics and offer opportunities for learning for all ages.
New for 2010:
SEA CHANGE Series
To contribute to an evidently necessary learning curve on the changing state of the sea and the creatures who live within it’s depth, the Whale Festival will be including a series entitled Sea Change. It’s a presentation series of (really awesome) dynamic speakers and documentary films relating to how human factors are changing the Earth's oceans, and how these conditions will affect human communities as well as the entire ocean system. Audiences will be treated to talks on some of the latest research and developments in climate & ocean sciences with information regarding trends in conservation and environmental education, aiming to inspire and enable solutions.
The SEA CHANGE Series is proud to host the following specials guests:
Dr. Elin Kelsey
SATURDAY MARCH 6, 2010
2pm / $FREE
SEA CHANGE Series hosts Children’s Book Launch & Interactive Presentation
with Elin Kelsey, author of Hey! Not Your Typical Book About The Environment
Clayoquot Field Station, Tofino
This book is geared toward kids aged 9-12, but is suitable for all ages! It’s written from a hopeful perspective. Kids (and adults) are bombarded with doom and gloom messages about the state of the planet and their futures. This book celebrates the amazing connections between the ordinary things in kids’ lives, like video games and bikes and chocolate chip cookies, and the extraordinary ways they are linked to mountain gorillas, blue whales, urban farming, climate change – you name it! It’s filled with creative, real world examples of how people all over the earth are living more sustainable lives. Join Elin Kelsey for the exciting launch of her book, reading and signing - and then join in the fun as everyone creates their own eco-comic-strip! Special thanks to The Clayoquot Field Station!
SUNDAY MARCH 7, 2010
7pm / $FREE
SEA CHANGE Series hosts Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales
with author Elin Kelsey
Black Rock Oceanfront Resort, Ucluelet
This presentation with special guest and author Elin Kelsey will allow you to better appreciate whales, and social relationships & whale ‘culture’. Her presentation stems from her book, which consists of short essays focused on amazing aspects of whale behavior or biology. Her personal anecdotes help make larger points about the contrast between whale behavior and humans, or the fragility of the ecosystem. Some will also appreciated her focus on whales as mothers and families, which is often missing from wildlife stories. Books available for signing at the event! Special thanks to Black Rock Oceanfront Resort.
Serge Dedina
FRIDAY MARCH 12
7pm / Admission at the door: $5
SEA CHANGE Series hosts Serge Dedina, author of Saving The Gray Whale: People, Politics and Conservation in Baja California
followed by SurfRider Movie Night screening ‘Morning of the Earth’
Clayoquot Community Theatre, Tofino
Join special guest Serge Dedina for an engaging presentation, and then we’ll screen the classic 70’s surf film! Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST, an international conservation organization based on the U.S.-Mexico border that works in the United States and Mexico to preserve coastal and marine ecoystems and wildlife. He discovered the plans by the Mitsubishi Corporation to transform Laguna San Ignacio, a gray whale calving lagoon and UNESCO world heritage site in Mexico into an industrial salt harvesting facility and helped to defeat the project. To date, Serge has helped to protect more than one million acres of globally significant coastal and marine habitat and has successfully stopped some of the world’s largest corporations from destroying the coast of the Californias. In recognition of his conservation achievements Serge received San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal, the California Coastal Commission’s “Environmental Hero” Award and the Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association “Environmentalist of the Year” award. Thanks to Pacific Sands Beach Resort and SurfRider-Pacific Rim Chapter!
Alanna Mitchell
SATURDAY MARCH 13
11am-12:30pm / $FREE
Casual Coffee & Book Signing with award winning journalist & author Alanna Mitchell
Wild Heather Books, Ucluelet
Alanna Mitchell is an award-winning Canadian journalist and author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean In Crisis. Her literary non-fiction wins praise for its ability to describe complex ideas in plain language. Mitchell's subjects are science, education and human behaviour and she is known for her strong narrative style. Join Alanna for coffee, and an informal opportunity to chat about her book, what happened at Copenhagen, and the world at large! A great lead-up to her presentation at 4pm in Tofino.
SATURDAY MARCH 13, 2010
4pm / Admission at the door: $5
Alanna Mitchell, author of international bestseller Sea Sick: The Global Ocean In Crisis
Clayoquot Community Theatre, Tofino
Alanna Mitchell is a journalist who worked for daily newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, for 14 years and then quit to devote herself to writing books about popular science. Her latest is Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, which came out last year and has become an international bestseller. Alanna was named the best environmental reporter in the world by the World Conservation Union and the Reuters Foundation in 2000. Her book Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, gives us a window of understanding into the vast chemical changes in the world's oceans currently taking place caused by the hand of man. Alanna effectively translates the science for her audience, and her literary non-fiction wins praise for its ability to describe complex ideas in plain language. Mitchell's subjects are science, education and human behaviour and she is known for her strong narrative style. Thank you to Tofino Sea Kayaking and The Paddler’s Inn.
