February 19, 2026 at 7pm - Snorkelling Adventures Around Vancouver Island and The Gulf Islands

Snorkelling Adventures Around Vancouver Island and The Gulf Islands with Sara Ellison

February 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Online via zoom and in person at Beban Park Social Centre Room 2

The chilly waters of the Pacific Northwest might not be top of your snorkelling bucket list, but our oceans are chockfull of stunning wildlife. Here, you can find some 30 species of seastars, giant anemones, fabulously coloured nudibranchs and of course the giant Pacific octopus. Although BC is a well known scuba diving location, it is less appreciated that the vast majority of these species can be found in the inter-tidal and shallow sub-tidal zones that are accessible to snorkellers. In this talk I will share my adventures and experiences, explaining the gear you need, the kinds of critters you will see and my personal top picks for places to go to see our wondrous wildlife.

Bio: By trade, Sara Ellison is an astrophysicist. After earning her PhD from the University of Cambridge, she spent 3 years doing astronomy research at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, before moving to the University of Victoria to take up a Canada Research Chair in 2003. Sara is an international leader in the field of galaxy evolution, with numerous honours and awards to her name, including the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics from the Royal Society of Canada. She is also a keen athlete and world traveller, but having snorkelled all around the world, BC is her favourite place to go for a swim! In 2023, Sara published “Snorkelling Adventures Around Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands: The Ultimate Guide”, which was a #1 bestseller on the BC booklist.

Check back here to watch the recorded presentation on the Nature Nanaimo YouTube channel.