Ucluelet

Ucluelet is the town at the southern end of Long Beach Provincial Park. As with most communities on the BC coast, it has a busy harbour with lots of colourful boats. We spent some time watching boats, trying to catch fish (minnow-size) with some fishing/butterfly nets we bought at the Ucluelet Co-op, and looking for seals. (We saw one or two.)



Ucleulet is also home to a small volunteer-run aquarium. This has only small animals that can fit in small to medium-sized tanks. What makes it unique is that all the species are collected every spring by locals along the shore-lines of the region, and released again in the fall, after the main tourist season. Plus they have several "hands-on" tanks where children (and grown-ups!) are allowed to touch the creatures. We saw sea slugs, sea cucumbers, a variety of anemone and star-fish, and many different kinds of fish.