Comox Estuary Tour #1

New totem on the land of K’omox First Nations
– C. Dalcourt
Our boat for the tour was the Twee Shoenen. The name means two shoes in Dutch. In reference to its two hulls that makes it very stable.
– B. Vangroenigen
Our guide ,Cailin with the blonde hair, explains the work that has been done and points out flora and fauna of the estuary.
– C. Dalcourt
Sand bar in Comox estuary with Canada Geese ( background shows Comox Glacier)
– C. Dalcourt
Close to 100 Common Mergansers were flocking in the estuary
– W. Ferrier
Vegetation for erosion control
– C. Dalcourt
Old sawmill site that is being restored to its previous natural state by Project Watershed with Comox and Provincial gov’t support.
– C. Dalcourt
Turkey vulture on the shore of the K’omox lands
– W. Ferrier
More mergies!
– W. Ferrier
Harbour seals with their babies outside of the marina
– W. Ferrier
Old sawmill site that is being restored to its previous natural state by Project Watershed with Comox and Provincial gov’t support.
– C. Dalcourt
Royston shipwreck that helps to protect the breakwater from erosion
– W. Ferrier

Comox Estuary Tour #1
by Cindy Dalcourt, 19 Sept 2022

A beautiful sunny fall day with calm seas for 12 of us to head over to Comox for our first ever trip with Comox Harbour Tours.  On the way there we were lucky to see whales spouting in the distance on both sides of the ferry.  As we had walked on we were met on the other side by our Captain, Duncan Cameron and boarded the arranged bus transport to Comox harbour.

Once aboard we met Cailin Pierzchalski – Director of Project Watershed www.kuskussum.ca who was our guide for the trip.  She was a wealth of knowledge about everything we saw.  The estuary is very shallow but with the draft of this boat we were able to go up the Courtenay River to see where Project Watershed is restoring the former Field Sawmill site back to native vegetation.  There was a lot of equipment working and it is a huge project funded by grants from many different agencies.  It was inspiring to hear of all the restoration work that has been done in the estuary area.

We saw a lot of seals and many different types of birds including turkey vultures enjoying a meal on shore.  We also learned that the Canada Geese are one of the main contributors to the destruction of the foreshore eel grass areas.  We definitely enjoyed our day and hope to make use of this tour company again in the future.