Cat town by Bob 'the lunch stealer' Morris

Bamfield is at the end of the road, literally. There is a marine supply store, a pub that is open Wed-Sat, and a grocery store about half the size of a small gas station convenience store. A cat colony and a Canadian Coast Guard station sit directly across the inlet from the Marine Sciences Centre. The cat colony is really more of a “cat town” that comes complete with brightly colored cat houses, cat hotels, and a cat main street, all maintained by the local community. The Coast Guard station consists of four white buildings with red roofs and a white and red Coast guard boat that is docked in front and ready for action. One of our main sampling stations, Effingham Inlet, is about an hour boat ride away. In addition to being surrounded by steep slopes, tall trees, and dozens of trickling waterfalls, it’s home to a unique community of marine microbes that have adapted to the deeper anaerobic waters typical of this and other fjords in the area. All and all, it’s a cool place to do science.