Bentinck Island, offshore from Rocky Point in Metchosin, is part of an area studied as much as most natural parks.
The Department of National Defence has owned Bentinck Island since 1954. Beginning in the 1990s, the department started hiring specialists to watch its Pacific properties. It now has nine people 鈥� ecologists, biologists, plant specialists, and a marine biologist 鈥� keeping track.
Duane Freeman, formation safety and environment officer at CFB Esquimalt, said the small beach area at the centre of Bentinck Island (shaped like a fidget spinner, according to one sailor) is the only area on the island that is allowed much activity.
Surveys over the rest of the small island have revealed the presence of 43 plant species considered at risk by Environment sa国际传媒. So care is taken.
Bird banding is an ongoing activity with an organization called the Rocky Point Bird Observatory.
The area is a natural staging area and launching point for migratory birds. Naturalists capture the birds and attach identity bands to their legs to learn their routes, destinations and distances travelled.
Marine mammals, such as whales and seals, are closely monitored. So the blasting range shuts down from spring through to July in deference to seals having pups. It also shuts down in late fall when seal lions return to the area.
Freeman said the navy records whale sightings from ships offshore. These are reported to the sa国际传媒 Cetacean Sightings Network as valuable data.
The area around Rocky Point has some of the last pristine Garry oak meadows found on Vancouver Island including a small patch of old-growth Douglas fir.
The Department of National Defence takes pains to protect the historical heritage on the island. For example, from 1924 to 1957 the island hosted a small hospital devoted to the care of leprosy patients. It was a facility built to replace a more infamous leper colony on D鈥橝rcy Island in Haro Strait.
Some leprosy-care buildings still remain on Bentinck Island, and the Defence Department has fenced them off.