With the great outdoors right outside the door, Bowen gives kids and adults get plenty of opportunity to see and learn about their environment. There is, however, an environment that isn't as easy to access the shores around Bowen Island.
But the Bowen Nature Club and local scuba diver Adam Taylor make it easier to connect with the ocean with the club's nature dive. The popular event returned June 5 and saw many Bowen families at the Mt. Gardner dock to visit with creatures they'd never seen before.
Taylor, who also conducts events for pre-school kids, BICS, CNIB campers and others, was contacted by the Nature Club five years ago to conduct the dives. The experienced diver and his dive team, Mira Grbich and Chris Harvey-Clark, brought up underwater creatures such as spiny pink sea stars.
After bringing them ashore, young people, their eyes full of wonderment, followed their every step. The divers placed the sea life in a safe water environment "touch tanks" so the children could visit with them and learn about the marine environment.
"Kids tend to like the sea cucumbers and sunflower stars the best; they're big and slimy," Taylor said. "The younger ones are usually drawn to moon jelly left in a Ziploc bag for safe viewing because of the scene from Finding Nemo. They also like the smallest of the sun stars or sunflower stars.
"If your hands are only a couple inches across, a one-inch sea star isn't as scary as a 16-inch one."
Taylor, who grew up on Bowen and has dived for about 20 years, feels there's a "growing appreciation of, and enthusiasm towards, the marine environment." Educating people about what lies below the water's surface and how best to treat it is a big part of what events like this are for.
The 38-year-old loves sharing his knowledge through diving but he's happy working in another profession for a living; he prefers leaving diving strictly as a passion. "I'd never actually make work out of diving; it might take all the fun out."
He first learned to scuba dive from local resident, and marine biology professor, Brian Hartwick.
"We saw octopus and other marine life on our very first ocean training dive," he said. "Years spent diving with other knowledgeable people and tagging along with marine biology classes has added a certain appreciation for what we do and do not have in local waters."
This year's Nature Dive had some new additions Taylor invited along the Marine Life Sanctuary Society of BC (MLSS) to help with interpreting what people were seeing on the beach. The MLSS is beginning a youth outreach program and the event was a good fit for their knowledgeable and energetic volunteers
Roy Mulder of MLSS, an underwater film maker and marine conservationist, shot and has already edited a short video of the day's events. Mulder offered up the video for Undercurrent readers to view on our website at www.bowenislandundercurrent.com. It's a great glimpse into a great day, a day Adam Taylor felt was a "win-win" for everyone, including himself.
"The main reason I do the Nature Dives is to share my passion about the ocean," Taylor said. "I would hope that not only do the children and adults gain a better appreciation of the waters around us but they may also realize that that it is a world is worth protecting.
"Perhaps people will think a little more about what we put down our drains, into our creeks and rivers, or how much we take out of the ocean."
