A Pacific Great Blue Heron rests in Victoria Outer Harbour on Dec. 17.
Early in the morning of New Year's Day, Harry the Heron is stalking the tidal marshes at the edge of an urban park in B.C.'s capital city. This particular Pacific Great Blue heron is frequently spotted at the entrance to Gorge Creek, and he is a symbol of an environmental success story.
"We are seeing things here that were unimaginable 30 years ago," biologist Jacques Sirois said in an interview at the water's edge. The waters around Victoria provide one of Canada's best wintering areas for migratory birds, and on this morning, Harry the Heron was sharing the calm waters with hundreds of ducks: buffleheads, American wigeons and common mergansers. A bald eagle circled overhead and a little further down the way, a harbour seal poked its head out of the water.
The Victoria Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary was established in 1923 to avert the threatened extinction of the Pacific Brant goose – then a popular meal at the Christmas table. But the protected status was almost forgotten, and by the 1980s, there was some pressure in Ottawa to do away with the designation.
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But there was also a growing concern about pollution that sparked volunteer cleanup efforts in the 1980s. Today, these waters are coming back to life. Much of the city's industrial activity on the waterfront has retreated – the real estate is now more valuable for condominiums. And conservation has overtaken unbridled over-harvesting of marine mammals, fish, shellfish and birds that began 160 years ago, when the first wave of gold seekers passed through Victoria on their way north.
The birds are just one slice of the diversity of wildlife found today in this marine sanctuary around the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Four species of whales are counted as regulars – orca, humpback, minke and greys. The Pacific Giant octopus, California sea lions, American mink, beavers and both sea and river otters can be found here. Below the surface, eel grass and glasswort plants, sea slugs and Olympia oysters are once again taking hold. Coho salmon are returning by the thousands to restored creeks.
There are species here that almost didn't make it: When a northern elephant seal hauled himself up on a beach just by Harry's favourite spot in the Gorge waterway about 25 years ago, the young male was a source of mystery. The species was harvested for its blubber and declared extinct 100 years ago. Since 2010, however, a breeding colony has re-established at Race Rocks, outside of Victoria's busy harbour. Purple martins – large, handsome swallows – were reduced to a few breeding pairs, but now a healthy colony roosts in a neighbourhood that was dominated until the 1980s by a major sawmill.
Standing next to a man-made estuary that has recreated one arm of the Gorge waterway, Mr. Sirois recalled the natural wading pools that once were found here. "This was a swimming hole for kids, until pollution made that untenable. It was the pollution that was the trigger, and the citizens took charge," he said.
Victoria's natural environment is now ranked as the city's most important asset – and local waterways are now busy with recreational paddlers instead of log booms.
Individuals and volunteer groups, such as the Veins of Life Watershed Society, began the massive project of cleaning up the region's waterways. But the scale of the damage was too much for even an army of volunteers. Five municipal governments, the regional government, a provincial Crown corporation and various departments of the federal government have been pulled into the effort. By Mr. Sirois's estimate, the restoration has absorbed at least $500-million to date. But even then, it is largely an unheralded turnaround effort.
Mr. Sirois is chair of the Friends of Victoria Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary and, as a biologist, has worked in migratory-bird sanctuaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific and in the Arctic. What makes this one special, he said, is the urban setting that allows so many people to experience nature. But few residents here are aware that they are living, working and playing in the middle of a nature sanctuary that boasts a stunning biodiversity, including 150 species of birds.
An avid kayaker, Mr. Sirois has spotted four species of seals in the space of one hour within the boundaries of the sanctuary, and he has twice narrowly avoided a collision with a humpback whale. While the recovery of wildlife is encouraging, it is far from complete. He estimates that the bird population is one-10th of what it was before urbanization. And there is one key species that has yet to return in any great numbers: the Pacific herring. The herring are a key part of Victoria's natural history – this region was known to the First Nations as the land of the smoked herring. There is more work to be done, he said, but there is every reason to be optimistic.
"After decades of over-harvesting and pollution, all the main species are still here with us in the city," he said. Biodiversity in the city is a larger prize than the protection of a single species, but he said the decision to protect the Pacific Brant has, almost a century later, helped focus the attention of the many agencies involved. "The bird sanctuary is a tool for renewal."