ABSTRACT
Baynes Sound is part of an ‘Important Bird Area’ (IBA) named ‘K’omoks’, which includes the waters around Denman and Hornby Islands, Comox Bay, a stretch of the coast of Vancouver Island north of Cape Lazo, the town of Comox, and the Comox Valley. IBA status has formalized what many in British Columbia already knew, and confers no legal status. IBAs are identified using internationally agreed upon criteria that are standardized, quantitative, and scientifically defensible. The coastline of British Columbia is long and complex, with deep fjords extending more than 100 km inland, countless bays and estuaries, many large and thousands of small islands with their associated straits, sounds, and passages. The orientation of Baynes Sound along the north-south tidal axis of the Strait of Georgia and the openings at its north and south ends give it excellent tidal flushing and hence large amounts of food are swept through with both rising and falling tides.
