Sea kayaking has experienced tremendous growth in the past couple of decades. It is a wonderful activity that attracts many people who wish to have a remote wilderness experience.
No Trace Camping
At Batstar, all of us believe in and practice no trace camping principles. On some of your nights, you will use established camp sites, such as in the Broken Group Islands. Wherever you camp, Batstar hopes you clean up any debris left behind from previous campers and certainly pack out what you bring in.
Garbage
We recommend that you keep an organic bag and dump it in the ocean away from your campsite and during a tide that takes it out to sea. This is the highest energy system and organics will quickly disperse and be broken down. Remove any sticker and labels from fruit and vegetables. Paper products can be burned in the fire. To eliminate the smell from empty cans, put them in the fire. Compact them and bring them home. Bring home all alcohol and beverage bottles. Crush any aluminum cans. Do not put empty beverage cans in a sea kayak without first being placed in a plastic bag.
Fires
If a fire ring has been left behind at our site, we break it up. Enlist the help of your group to help clean up the islands that you camp on. When you break up a fire ring, take the rocks back to the area that they came from rather than throw them down the beach where they become a hazard to a kayak’s gel coated hull. If you make a fire, we only use driftwood. The pieces are small or cut small. We don’t use large driftwood logs as fire-breaks. Scarring of logs by carelessly built fires is a real tragedy. Scour the camping area looking for charred wood for use in your fire so as to rid the area of these unsightly remnants of poorly rendered fires.
When there’s a Fire Ban on the west coast, most often it excludes the Fog Zone, which is where you will be paddling. However, every once in Blue Moon there is a fire ban in the Fog Zone. You should alway check to see if there is a fire ban. Here’s the link to the Government of British Columbia’s Wildfire Service. You’re in the Fog Zone of the Coastal Zone.
Smoking
We always recommend that you smoke away from your group or any other paddlers. Find a piece of paradise in the intertidal zone by yourself or with a smoking buddy and enjoy your cigarette, cigar or vape there. If you smoke in your tent, you will be charged to replace the tent, sleeping bags and thermarests that you are using.
If you smoke marijuana, please do so responsibly at then end of your day of kayaking. Follow the same protocol for cigarettes. You can purchase marijuana in Port Alberni from several dispensaries that have City of Port Alberni business licences. We also recommend drinking alcohol at the end our your day of sea kayaking.
Animals
Do not feed any wild animals, no matter how cute they are. Keep a clean kitchen and dispose of waste correctly. Little bits of food debris attracts mice, voles and crows, animals that you do not want in your kitchen.
On the water stay 100m away from marine mammals. Sometimes you have to navigate between two islands that have sea lions on them. This is ok but don’t approach the shore. If sea lions start to get agitated on land, move away.
Human Made Structures
If you make cairns or Inukshuks in the intertidal zone, take a photo and knock them down when you leave the area. Your artwork is not necessary. Leave the beach like someone is just discovering it for the first time. If you find cairns, Inukshuks, fire pits, nasty rope swings: knock them down, clean them up, remove the eyesore restore the area for the next person. The Karma you will receive will be worth it.
Below are some examples of high impact camping. We cleaned all these sites up.
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