New mugs!!

West Coast Aquatic Safaris is pleased to announce that we have just received our new shipment of mugs! These great travel mugs are durable and great for keeping your beverages hot or cold while you are on the go. We have them for sale here at our office for $14.95. Want to win one? Enter our photo of the week contest! Each week we have guests send us photos from their trips out on WASCO. The winner each week gets their photo posted on our website and we send them a travel mug anywhere in the world! Check out our homepage to see our current winner.

In order to get great photos you need to come out on a trip! Our whale watching trips have been great with lots of humpback whales breaching and the gray whales have been tail fluking! Our bear watches have been seeing lots of black bears coming right to the shoreline. We have gotten close up with these great bears and gotten some great photos! So come out for a ride on WASCO. The views are amazing!

Windy day!

So the sun has decided to shine today but the winds have come in strong today. It is still safe to go out to the ocean for whale watching however there is an increased chance for sea sickness on days like this. West Coast Aquatic Safaris wants to help our guests have the best possible time out on the water and will always inform our guests of the conditions. Here are a few tips for when you are out on the water and starting to feel a bit sick:

1. Focus on the horizon. Keeping focused on a stable point of land helps.
2. Fresh air! Going inside is not a good option. Stay outside and get as much fresh sea air as you can.
3. Water - always help settle the stomach.

These are just a few tips for when you come out on a whale watch. The benefits of the whale watches is the incredible nature that you get to see from WASCO. We have been seeing humpback whales everyday for the last 4 days. Gray whales have been seen every trip and the Steller sea lions have been out on the rocks making lots of noise. It is an amazing trip with so much to see!

Sunny day!

It is a beautiful day here in Tofino. West Coast Aquatic Safaris staff are trying their best to soak it up because the forecast is looking cloudy for the next couple of days! It has been great for whale watchers out on WASCO. We have been watching humpback whales today down at Long Beach. Yesterday was what we like to call whale soup! There were humpbacks, gray whales and orcas! With so many whales we are looking forward to some great photos from our guests for the photo of the week contest!

A common question we get from guests is if there is a better time to view the whales. We offer 9:30, 12:30 and 3:30 trips so people always want to know what time is better. We are happy to tell you that all times are good! We have been seeing whales everyday on every trip. It's a great time out on WASCO with lots to see!

Humpbacks and a Sunfish!

The last few days West Coast Aquatic Safaris guests have been enjoying seeing the humpback whales down at Long Beach. It is not too often that the humpbacks can be found at the same spot for several days in a row. So we have really been lucky to have them there. They have been doing a lot of breaching, tail fluking and fin slapping and our guests have been getting some amazing photos.

Another fun surprise our guests had on a whale watch yesterday was the opportunity to see a sunfish! This is the first one we have seen this season and our guests were fascinated by this 5 foot long fish! Jeff who was driving WASCO was able to get some great photos of this unusual looking fish and we have posted all of them on our Flickr!

More orcas have been seen today as well. Despite the high winds our guests have been enjoying some great sightings as a pod of six orcas have been passing through. We hope to see you soon!

Orcas and photos!

West Coast Aquatic Safaris guests had a great day out on the water yesterday. The humpback whales were very active down at Long Beach again. It has been three days in a row that we have been able to view these great animals down at Long Beach. We also were able to catch up with the orcas later in the day. Our guests were thrilled to have the opportunity to see these transient killer whales passing through.

We also have a new photo of the week! Tineke van Geel sent us some amazing photos (shown here) and of course you can see the winning photo on our website! Want even more photos? Check our our galleries. And for even MORE photos go to our Flickr account. Our drivers have been taking some amazing photos. See what they get to see everyday!

Humpback days!

The last couple of days have been great for West Coast Aquatic Safaris guests for viewing humpback whales. Jeff has been taking WASCO down to Long Beach where the humpback whales have been for the past couple of days. And they have been giving our guests amazing shows! The humpbacks have been very active with lots of breaching, fin slapping and tail fluking. Giving our guests a great opportunity to see these great animals active in the wild.

Our bear watch trips have also been great. Yesterday Jeff found a few black bears and our guests were able to get up close and view them for quite some time. This mornings bear watch our guests were also able to get up close with the bears. Great wildlife sightings and lots of happy guests!

Farewell to a dear friend

West Coast Aquatic Safaris staff really enjoy being able to bring their dogs to work. Juliet is always happy to greet guests coming by the office and is always looking for a pet! When Henry stops by he is immediately your best friend and is happy to play with anyone who is willing. Oscar who was supposed to only visit for a couple of weeks ended up staying here for over a month and a half and enjoyed his time at the office greeting guests and walking down to WASCO with everyone.

West Coast Aquatic Safaris lost our dear friend Oscar to cancer recently and are sad that he had to go so young. Oscar really enjoyed his time here going down to WASCO and taking a dip in the ocean off the boat loading docks when he could. He was always out on the front porch enjoying the sunshine and greeting guests as they came in. We are happy that he was able to spend his last days in Tofino running on the beach, playing in the ocean and spending time at the office. We are sad to have lost such a great loyal companion and he is greatly missed.