As we wrap up our 2024 expedition season and approach the end of another year, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some behind-the-scenes insights into how you, our guests, contribute to an amazing conservation-based economy here on the BC coast, which we’re incredibly proud to be a part of.
On each of our small-group expeditions aboard the schooner Passing Cloud, our guests and crew explore, experience, and learn about the incredible wildlife, ecosystems, cultures, communities, and conservation initiatives throughout the BC coast. It’s the remote wilderness, unparalleled encounters, personal connections, and unscripted adventures that our guests typically come to join us for. But perhaps what our guests may not fully appreciate is the extent to which their tourism dollars contribute to an amazing conservation-based economy here on the BC coast. And it’s this contribution from you, our guests, and our gratitude, that I want to both celebrate and explain as the focus of this blog post.
The Outer Shores family and the schooner Passing Cloud
Outer Shores Expeditions is a small, family-owned and operated business that deeply embodies the values and backgrounds of both my wife, Rebecca, and me. As marine ecologists and conservation biologists, over the past 12 years since establishing Outer Shores, we’ve immensely enjoyed the many communities to which we’ve become connected, and contributing to a conservation-based economy here on the BC coast.
Through our expeditions, we have found great joy in supporting our crew by providing training, employment, and opportunities for career development. This support extends to their roles as professional guides, and chefs, helping them to build fulfilling careers while also benefitting their families.
And in turn, our crew provide exceptional experiences for our guests while also helping us support the ongoing care, maintenance, and maritime heritage of the schooner Passing Cloud.
Supporting Industries and Communities
As the old saying goes, “it takes a community to raise a child,” and the same can be said for running a logistically complex business like Outer Shores as well as caring for a Transport Canada certified passenger vessel and classic wooden schooner.
We are incredibly grateful for all the supporting businesses and organisations that directly or indirectly support our company, expeditions, guests, crew, and vessel. Though too numerous to list here, they include a wide range of services such as grocery stores, fish suppliers, accommodations, restaurants, car rentals, shipyards, wooden boat experts, marine mechanics, sailmakers, electricians, bookkeepers, accountants, lawyers, marinas and fuel docks, marine supply stores, ground transportation, airlines, water taxis, and more.
First Nation Conservation and Stewardship Fees and Initiatives
When operating in the Great Bear Rainforest, within the traditional territories of several First Nations, Outer Shores follows tourism protocol agreements by paying conservation and stewardship fees. These fees are calculated based on the number of guests and the number of days we spend within each territory. Collectively, these fees, when applied across all companies and vessels, contribute substantially towards supporting a wide range of conservation and stewardship initiatives within these Nations and the communities we visit, from monitoring salmon returns to training Indigenous Guardian and Wardens.
- Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation – Resource Stewardship
- Heiltsuk Nation – Integrated Resource Management
- Gitga’at Nation – Oceans and Lands
National Park Reserves and Provincial Parks and Conservancies
Similarly, when visiting the National Parks (e.g., Gwaii Haanas and Gulf Islands National Park Reserve), as well as dozens of BC Parks and Conservancies along the BC coast, Outer Shores pays user fees on behalf of our guests. These fees help to fund the operation and maintenance of these invaluable protected areas.
- Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area, and Haida Heritage Site
- Gulf Islands National Park Reserve
- BC Parks Conservation
Industry Associations and Conservation-Based Organizations
In addition to the protected areas and traditional territories we visit, Outer Shores and other members of the Small Ship Tour Operators Association of BC are proud to support an incredible suite of tourism industry and conservation-based organisations on the BC coast, both as members and financial contributors. These organizations include but are not limited to:
- Wilderness Tourism Association of British Columbia
- Commercial Bear Viewing Association of British Columbia
- Grizzly Bear Foundation
- North Island Marine Mammal Stewardship Association
- Marine Education and Research Society
- Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration
- BC Whales
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation
- Pacific Salmon Foundation
Participation in Coastal Conservation Planning Processes
As a result of our coast-wide operations and unique knowledge and insights into the ecosystems and wildlife of the BC coast, our small-ship expedition tourism industry participates in numerous and exciting planning and stakeholder engagement processes. These include marine protected area planning, fisheries closures, and the establishment of multi-use national marine conservation areas. And though time-consuming, we feel incredibly fortunate to be able to support and help inform these processes, ultimately enabled by our guests.
- Marine Protected Area Network
- Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast
- National Marine Conservation Areas
Industry-led Coastal Restoration and Citizen-Science Initiatives
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Small-Ship Tour Operators Association cooperatively and proudly undertook the largest marine debris clean-up initiative in the history of the BC coast. It was through this process that we came to fully appreciate the opportunities that our member companies have to work collectively to undertake citizen-science projects aimed at ocean climate research and monitoring. We’re currently gearing up to embark upon a large-scale project aimed at understanding ocean acidification and hypoxia on the BC coast.
Outer Shores is Proudly Carbon Neutral
Since we began Outer Shores Expeditions way back in 2012, minimizing our carbon footprint and offsetting the emissions that we do produce has been a priority for us, and which we’ve currently achieved through 2023. This process involved annual assessments of Outer Shores’ greenhouse gas emissions by Synergy Enterprises, and with the assistance of Ostrom Climate, directing our carbon offsets into valuable carbon sequestration projects on the BC coast.
Outer Shores’ OCEaNS Fund Contributions
To deepen Outer Shores’ commitment to preserving and understanding the BC coast, we recently announced our OCEaNS Fund Contribution program. Starting in 2025, a $200 per person contribution will be added to our expedition fees, with 100% of the funds awarded as micro-grants and bursaries to support ocean-based research, monitoring, education, and training. Stay tuned for our first round of awards next spring!
And so, thank you to all of our guests, past, present, and future, who have joined our expeditions and supported and contributed to Outer Shores and the conservation-based economy and community of which we are proudly a part. We couldn’t do this without you!
