SKA and Responsible Tourism

Sea Kayak Adventures has been taking responsible travel seriously since our first kayaking trips in 1993. After all, paddling a sea kayak is the ultimate minimal-impact approach to traveling. But we also recognize that any travel has an impact, so we do everything we can to reduce that impact.

When you travel with a company that is helping to address climate change, protect nature, and promote conservation, you are investing in your own rewarding travel experiences now and for future generations.

Sea Kayak Adventures is committed to protecting the environment of the places where we operate our tours.  We actively promote awareness, understanding and appreciation of the natural environment to our travelers and we support local conservation organizations through donations from our t-shirt sales.  We follow leave-no-trace minimum impact practices.

Here are more ways SKA is moving forward in sustainable tourism best practices:

• SKA supports several local conservation groups in BC and Baja.  Beginning in 2008, we stepped up our commitment to sustainable tourism by pledging 50 percent of our t-shirt sales to Grupo Tortugero in Baja, and to Save Our Salmon and Adopt-a-Fry in BC.
• We employ local guides in BC and Baja.  In Loreto, we hired instructors to train and certify Mexican sea kayak guides.  In Magdalena Bay, we hire local fishermen to take our guests whale watching, thereby providing a viable economic alternative to fishing.
• All of our guides are trained to minimize impact on the environment, follow wildlife watching guidelines, and teach travelers environmentally sound ways of enjoying the wilderness.
• We were the first sea kayak company in Baja to develop and start using a porta-potty made specifically to fit into a double-touring kayak years before they were required by the National Park in Loreto.
• We recycle in our home office and at our field operations in BC and Baja, and donate used gear to various community programs in Loreto.

We're going green - carbon offsetting
In 2007, Sea Kayak Adventures became the first sea-kayaking company operating in Baja California and in British Columbia to become certified as a carbon-neutral company. In other words, SKA now plans to offset 100 percent of the energy used in all of its tour operations, from now on.

To achieve this goal, SKA partnered with Native Energy, an organization that aims to combat global warming through the support of Native American, farmer-owned and charitable renewable energy projects. We also welcome our customers to do the same, by providing a link on our website to Native Energy to offset their own carbon usage when traveling.

Company owner Terry Prichard states “We’re proud of the fact that most of our trips are inherently low carbon-emitting, but we wanted to go further to offset the impact of our tours, thus we are paying to fully offset the carbon releases from the vehicles and flights used to transport our guides and gear, all passenger transportation included in our trips, any fuel used on our trips and all of the electricity consumed by our office and operations facilities.”

To offset its own carbon output, Sea Kayak Adventures now pays to support two different projects: the Mains Family Farm methane project, which recovers waste heat to reduce the need for oil-fired water heating, and the Farmer-Owned Distributed Wind Turbines project, which funds the sale and installation of wind turbines to help farmers reduce their long-term electricity needs and lower their energy costs.

In other words, these two projects help to create less carbon output, and in turn, Sea Kayak Adventures’ contributions to both projects reduce its own environmental footprint. So while our customers may not notice any difference, the global environment should ideally enjoy the benefits.

Baja Conservation Groups

Magdalena Baykeepers
Magdalena Baykeepers was accepted into the International Waterkeeper Alliance in July of 2005 with the mission to conserve the natural resources Magdalena Bay. Magdalena Baykeepers envisions a healthy bay ecosystem that supports productive fisheries, sustains a home to migrating Gray Whales and endangered sea turtles, and provides a healthy, contamination-free resource to the local community and visitors.

GrupoTortuguero
Each year we donate between $800 to $1000 from our t-shirt sales to Grupo Tortugero, a grass-roots conservation organization in Baja, to support their efforts in local fishing communities to protect endangered sea turtles.  When you purchase a t-shirt from us at your farewell dinner, $10 will go towards supporting Grupo Tortuguero.  Several of SKA's Mexican guides, Charo and Vladimir, work with Grupo Tortuguero during our off-season in Baja.

Eco-Alianza de Loreto
Eco-Alianza de Loreto, A.C. is a nonprofit membership organization of environmental organizations and individuals committed to working collaboratively to protect and preserve the coastal, marine and terrestrial eco-systems of the Municipality of Loreto while promoting smart growth strategies and viable communities in the region.

British Columbia Conservation Groups

British Columbia Wild Killer Whale Adoption Program
The B.C. Wild Killer Whale Adoption Program is hosted by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, a non-profit organization. You can adopt a wild killer whale. All contributions go directly to research and conservation of killer whales in the wild.

Save Our Salmon
The Save Our Salmon Initiative (SOS) was launched to protect B.C.’s important stocks of wild Pacific salmon which are essential to the ecological, cultural and economic well-being of British Columbia.  We support SOS with donations from our t-shirt sales.

Adopt-A-Fry
An advocacy and information site about the dangers posed by fish farms to the wild salmon population in the waters off the coast.  Alexandra Morton is raising funds for a legal challenge to the Provincial regulation of fish farms. We support Adopt-A-Fry with donations from our t-shirt sales.

Sea Kayak Adventures is also a member of the following Conservation groups:

California Gray Whale Coalition
Audubon
Idaho Rivers United
America Outdoors
The Ocean Conservancy
Pro Peninsula
Nature Conservancy