Photo by: Kirst King Jones

It’s an exciting time of year to be at Outer Shores Lodge! 

In the coming days, billions of herring will gather along the coast of British Columbia to spawn, bringing with them an unbelievable concentration of predators and prey, including grey whales, humpback whales, seals, sea lions, bears, sea wolves, eagles, and more. 

In the lead up to the actual spawn, one of the areas where the herring congregate happens to be Barkley Sound. And a result, the herring are bringing in all this other marine wildlife with them to our region. 

Every Spring, we’ll be taking advantage of this incredible mass migration happening in the ocean and along the shorelines around the Lodge to provide interpretation to our guests about the larger context of what we’re witnessing during our daily excursions into Barkley Sound and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. 

Despite the incredible importance of the event and the unbelievable amount of wildlife that comes with it, the annual herring spawn has yet to get its proper recognition as a remarkable natural phenomenon outside of the scientific circles and local communities living adjacent to these spawning events. 

Which is why we are excited to show our guests what our region is really like this time of year. While early to mid-March might not necessarily feel like spring for much of the rest of Canada, globally significant things are happening in BC starting in the beginning of March, and they will continue right up to bears feeding on spawning salmon in November.