It isn’t every day we get to show up for work barefoot, roll up our pant legs, wear sunglasses and a ballcap and smell like sunscreen.
This was no typical Tuesday morning at the office, however. It was Marine Day and the workplace was Witty’s Lagoon Regional Park.
While we thought we’d be able to leap across tidal pools from Tower Point to the main beach in our shoes, the seashore dictated otherwise.
Not that we were complaining, nor were hundreds of day-campers, tourists and local families who descended on Metchosin’s sun-kissed waterfront at low tide.
While the CRD’s annual celebration of our precious marine environment provided fun in the sun, it was also educational.
Popular activities included marine bingo, dip-netting, a beach seine near an eel grass meadow, and close encounters with starfish and other sea life.
“There’s the wow factor kids have when they learn about these creatures that live in the ocean but they don’t normally get to see,” explained Nancie Dohan, CRD Regional Parks environmental interpretation co-ordinator, noting reaction from visitors who got to catch small sea creatures and examine larger ones that divers brought up from deeper waters near Albert Head.
Those tiny crabs that scamper across ripples of hard-packed sand flecked with seaweed are “a great place to start to teach kids,” Dohan said.
Dip-netting proved popular, with youngsters packing a large tidal pool near a massive trench dug by pint-sized pals who gleefully took turns pushing each other in.
“This goes on all summer,” says Deb Thiessen, a park intrepreter who offered guidelines so young crab-collectors “don’t wreak havoc on the beach.”
While kids tend to fill buckets of water with crabs, the tiny creatures can overheat and die once the kids run off, she cautioned.
“We teach them how to turn over rocks, and how to put them back and make sure they’re always in water that’s cold,” she said, noting a school of fish turned heads earlier that day.
“Sometimes, bigger fish will come in here and spawn when the tide is in, and when the tide’s out, the young fish are in [the pools] where it’s like a little nursery.”
“The kids all want to run into the water right away,” laughed Daniele Goulet, a field trip supervisor who ensured her Quadra Village community centre charges were sunscreened first.
“This is my first time here,” she admitted. “I’ve learned we have even more places in Victoria to explore.”
Cheryl Hallen, an Island-raised mother of five who now lives in California, came two years ago and returned Tuesday with a former Comox Valley high school classmate.
“Everyone just loved it the last time and I wanted to make sure we could do it again.”