This video is amazing and very special for me, because it was filmed underwater at Campbell River on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The Campbell River reaches nearly to the eastern side of the island and the town of Port Alberni is located there with what is still probably the biggest paper mill in the world. During the year that I worked on a project to expand the mill, the town was hit by the last major tsunami to hit B.C. shores on March 27 1964, following the 9.2-magnitude Great Alaska Earthquake. When the waves hit the B.C. west coast they went up the river and Port Alberni was flooded. Hundreds of cars in the pulp mill’s parking lot were washed into the river, including our Project Manager’s new Mercedes.
I also studied the Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) a large brown algae that grows in waters off the Pacific coast of Canada for a project to harvest it futher north at Prince Rupert. It can grow to 45 metres in length and you can see smaller specimens in the video.
I have long been interested in the Pacific Giant Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini). They can grow very big, exceeding 70 Kg in weight, with tentacles more than 3 metres long and have very large eyes. They are gentle creatures, very intelligent and can remember people and other animals. In the video a local Campbell River diver Christine Humphreys took friends to see if they could find an octopus. Within a few minutes she found one and it came to greet them.
