BCAA

Fish-Eye Effect p18-27_The List.indd 23 on my Great Canadian Bucket List, I���m familiar with this moment. It sounds not unlike: ���What the hell are you doing?��� But then I dip my head, to see a wall of shimmering rock. Only the wall is salmon, and the shimmering is the sun, reflecting off their skin ��� thousands of them, in every direction. The current gently carries me forward. I���m now part of the school, but gliding in the opposite direction, a dumpster truck reversing down a gridlocked highway. The current picks up speed, as the pinks increase in number. I see the hooks of fishing lines, surrounded by a circular wall of rightfully suspicious salmon, including chinook the size of Rottweilers. ���Over here!��� I yell to a fisherman, who is clearly not amused. Wild salmon stocks may be threatened, but on this hot day in Campbell River, thankfully, there seems to be plenty to go around. ��� ���Robin Esrock START HERE Three snorkel-with-salmon tours: destinyriver.com couver i an and sl CAMPBELL RIVER, VANCOUVER ISLAND Is there a creature more connected with the B.C. coast than the mighty salmon ��� smoked, dried and cured for centuries, now grilled, poached and rolled in seaweed? Half a billion meals swimming thousands of kilometres of ocean to complete their circle of life, leaping like athletes into the very streams in which they once hatched. In doing so, they provide a feast for a variety of animals ��� bear, sea lion, human ��� while their expired bodies provide vital nitrogen for the soil in which the West Coast���s giant trees grow. Honoured in native art, prized by fishers, desired by epicureans, isn���t it time you saw them ��� alive, in their natural habitat? Well, just outside Campbell River, Destiny River Adventures offers the chance to do just that: to put on a wetsuit and enter the salmon���s watery realm. It���s a muggy day in July when I sign the obligatory waiver and get fitted with suit, mask and snorkel. Guided by owner Jamie Turko, five of us then board a bus for the short drive upriver to where our whitewater rafts await. Along the way, Turko lists the salmon species native to the coast (chum, coho, pink, sockeye, chinook) and explains how we���ll likely see pinks today, along with a smattering of rainbow and steelhead trout. Once aboard the raft, I can barely make out streaks of grey movement beneath us. But since the banks are lined with opportunistic local anglers, I know the fish are here. Edging the raft toward the right spot, I spit in my mask and hop in the water ��� the cold sending a shock up my spine. Having spent the last year travelling Canada, ticking off experiences east v The Snorkel 13-01-28 10:30 AM

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