Sea Wolf Adventures

Dolphins too numerous to count jump on either side of the boat as you head across the waters from northeastern Vancouver Island toward the Great Bear Rainforest on B.C.’s mainland. They’re feeding on herring at the end of the inlet and your boat is on its way to see grizzly bears “where the salmon gather” at Xakwikan (Thompson Sound).

Along the way, whales emerge from the shimmering water; eagles soar overhead. Listen to Mike Willie’s gentle voice as he tells stories and explains what wildlife means to his Musgamakw Dzawada’ enuxw (Four tribes of Kingcome) people. “There is a lot of travel time so we talk about First Nations — the past and the present, and where we want to go in the future,” says Willie, who started Sea Wolf Adventures in 2013. “I love it when people ask a thousand questions.”

Sea Wolf Adventures takes small tours of people out on the water and into a number of First Nations communities in the Broughton Archipelago. At Alert Bay, you’ll visit the site of a residential school, go into a longhouse and see potlatch masks in the U’mista Cultural Centre. “I feel lucky having grown up in a small community that really never lost our language or our history or traditions,” says Willie. “I just share who I am.”