Mudflat Program

The Tofino Mudflats is an estuarine ecosystem right on the edge of Tofino, an internationally significant migratory stop-over for shorebirds and among the top ten most critical wetlands for wintering waterfowl on Canada's west coast. Over 100,000 shorebirds including western sandpipers, short-billed and long-billed dowitchers, dunlin, least sandpipers, sanderling and black-bellied plovers have been tallied in the Tofino Mudflats Area during the spring migration. They appear to be quiet and calm, but this vast expanse of mud supports millions of creatures living just below its surface. This 90 minute guided interpretive walk will introduce you to the flora and fauna of the mudflats, from unicellular algae to great blue herons. You will also learn what kind of impact human activity is having on mudflat and estuarine ecosystems and what you can do about it. What is a 20-metre long gray whale doing scooping up mud in water that is only 3-metres deep? After a quick scoop of rich coastal mud, an interpreter gently passes around a ghost shrimp for students to examine as s/he describes the ecological significance of the intricate food chain happening underneath the coastal sediments. Now imagine that you?ve eaten so much seafood that you doubled your weight in 48 hours and then had to fly from Vancouver Island to Alaska. While it sounds scientifically impossible, your interpreter explains why thousands of shorebirds need to take the phrase 'all you can eat seafood buffet' to the extreme every year, and why these mudflats are critical to North American shorebird?s survival. These and other astonishing scientific facts and questions are explored while your group has fun getting their feet and fingers muddy with hands-on learning. You'll never look at mud the same way again.