I sat on the pontoon of our inflatable, still dripping from our dive off Stubbs Island in the Cormorant Channel Provincial Marine Park. As I pulled off my snorkel and mask, I heard the familiar sound of a whale exhaling from its blowhole.

Looking out across Blackfish Sound, I saw the fountain mist of a Killer Whale rise up from the water near Malcolm Island. "It always amazes me how sound carries when you're on the water," I remarked to my husband. "It sounded like that whale was right beside us." Just as I uttered those words, a whale surfaced not 10 feet from our boat, where I had been underwater just moments before.

That electrifying encounter occurred last summer as we anchored near Vancouver Island's Pearse Island group to scuba dive and view the whales that feed in the area, one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. A nursery to millions of fish, and the large prey that hunt them, the area is a popular summer draw for boaters who come to experience whales up-close in a pristine marine environment.

RICK LEBLANCStellar Sea Lions weigh as much as 2000 pounds and are the largest sea lions in the area.While boaters come to view the marine life, they stay, sometimes for weeks, to explore the three island communities that surround the park. There's the tiny boardwalk town that sits on stilts on Northern Vancouver Island"”one of the best places in North America to view Killer Whales; the picturesque fishing village of Sointula on Malcolm Island, where the Finns planted their roots in the 1900s and today is site of the oldest cooperative store in British Columbia; and Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, the home of the Namgis First Nation.

TELEGRAPH COVE

Two and a half nautical miles from our anchorage in the Pearse Islands, across well-known Johnstone Strait, is Telegraph Cove – one of the premiere jumping-off spots in British Columbia for whale watching.

During the summer the straits just outside the cove are visited daily by Humpback and Orca, as well as Doll Porpoises and Pacific White Sided Dolphins, while all five species of Pacific salmon can be caught. In the fall, sea lions come to call, swimming just off the shoreline.

Travis Meinhold, the owner of Telegraph Cove Ventures, first began coming to the cove at age 6 with his family. Together they would load up their 17-foot Reinell tri-hull and tow it 16 hours to Telegraph from their home in West Richland, Wash.

"We immediately fell for the charm and splendor of the cove," recalls Meinhold. "We would come back every summer."

Telegraph Cove is set in a small circular bay with only the smallest of keyhole openings into the straits beyond. There a bayside village was established in 1912 as a one-person telegraph station, which was used until WWII.

In the mid-1920's, pioneer Alfred Marmaduke "Duke" Wastell built a chum salmon saltery and a small sawmill, as well as a village that sits lofted over the beach on stilts.

The village was restored in the 1980's and is now offered to visitors as a resort with a variety of picturesque accommodations to rent during the summer months – from the mill owner's mansion high on a rocky outlook and the bachelor bunkhouse, to the WWII Air Force mess hall and cookhouse. The building`s are linked together around the edge of the cove by a yellow cedar boardwalk. Plaques offer a written history of the community's pioneer past.

SOINTULA

In the early 1900s, a group of Finnish visionaries moved to Malcolm Island – off the northeast shore of Vancouver Island – to establish a colony based on utopian ideals. It was named, "Sointula," a Finnish word meaning harmony.

Today the Island, just a 25-minute ferry ride from Port McNeill, boasts a more diversified population, but still remains authentic to its roots"” from the oldest cooperative store in British Columbia to the network of gravel roads that allow access to a natural wonderland. It's here that hikers, whale watchers, and bird enthusiasts come to spy Bald Eagles, Great Blue Heron, Harlequin Ducks and Rhinoceros Auklets.

A 17 mile road runs down the spine of the island and connects Mitchell Bay on the southeast point to Pulteney Point on the north where Pulteney Point Lighthouse is still manned by a keeper.

eautiful Bay Trail, a popular three mile walk, winds along a ridge through stunning rain forest offering glimpses of Queen Charlotte Strait and the snowcapped Coastal Mountains. The trail overlooks one of the area's biggest attractions for visitors, a beach where Orcas come within feet of the shore to massage their bodies by rubbing and rolling in the large pebbles.

ALERT BAY

Alert Bay, home to the Cormorant Island fishing community and the Namgis First Nation, is the oldest inhabited area in the northern Vancouver Island region.

With a population of approximately 600, the bay is a well-known centre for the powerful resurgence of native culture and hosts some of the region's finest historical artifacts and First Nation paintings, not to mention the world's tallest totem pole. At 173 feet, the pole was carved in 1971 by six Kwakwaka'wakw artists.

Memorial totem poles may be viewed from the road at the Namgis Burial Grounds, an old native cemetery and one of the few remaining locations on the BC coast where totems remain undisturbed on their original site.

In addition, the U'mista Cultural Centre, a Northwest Coast art and cultural showcase, displays carved cedar masks that depict the Potlatch ceremony, a time when theatrical dances were performed to reflect the wealth of the Kwakwaka'wakw people.

Almost everyone has a favorite place to go boating. After 15 years of cruising in the Pacific Northwest, ours continues to be Cormorant Channel Marine Park.

The diving is outstanding, with abundant sea life and water so clear at times it's like swimming in an aquarium. To see a Humpback rise up hands-reach from your boat or a pod of Killer Whales swim by while your fishing rod dangles beside the boat are moments not soon forgotten. For sure we will be back next summer to relive the magic.

CORMORANT CHANNEL PROVINCIAL MARINE PARK