Authentically Canadian, Locally Owned, Family-Founded — Exploring with Purpose, Protecting for Tomorrow.
🏆 TripAdvisor Best of the Best 2026 — Named #2 Experience in Canada
The Salish Sea Education Program
Empowering the next generation of Salish Sea stewards!
We need your help!
We know our award-winning Floating Classroom: Exploring the Salish Sea Education Program is having a massive positive impact on the children who participate in this program. We want to make it accessible for any student or school in Greater Victoria.
Teachers have informed us that cost can be an obstacle in being able to participate. In recent years, some schools have used funding acquired during COVID. However, those funds are running out. Even schools in higher-income districts are telling us that the cost is becoming prohibitive for them.
The Floating Classroom program must also be sustainable for Eagle Wing to run. Until now, we’ve absorbed a significant portion of the costs. We remain committed to running this as a non-profit program. With new funding, the program will be more sustainable for all involved and there will be more opportunities to expand to other schools and school districts.
- Eagle Wing contributed more than $150,000 in the first few years to get the program running smoothly.
- We would like to raise $260,000 every year to make it easily accessible for all students AND sustainable for Eagle Wing Tours to run!
- Eagle Wing Tours will continue to contribute $80,000 per year until our goals are achieved.
Your generosity will help us make this program accessible to ALL students, regardless of their background. And it will enable Eagle Wing and our partners to provide it to more children. We’re committed to making a positive impact on the world through education!
When you make a donation via our partnership with Wilderness International a receipt is not automatically generated for privacy of information rules and regulations (via Payment gateway Stripe). Please send an email to kontakt@wilderness-international.org if you wish to receive a tax deductible receipt.
Donate to our Salish Sea ambassadors
Make a difference & empower the next generation of Salish Sea Stewards. Support the future of the Salish Sea by investing in the children who will protect it! We have partnered with Wilderness International to open a donations portal to reduce the cost for all schools. *taxable receipts are provided upon request.
*When you donate to this program, show Eagle Wing your receipt and we will give you a coupon for 20% of your donation value of $100 or more.
Donate $1000
To fund this experience for approximately 20 children
Receive a $200 coupon towards whale watching with Eagle Wing (expires 31/12/25)
*tax receipts are provided upon request.
Donate $500
To fund this experience for approximately 10 children
Receive a $100 coupon towards whale watching with Eagle Wing (expires 31/12/25)
*tax receipts are provided upon request.
Choose your donation
$50 to fund one child
Receive a coupon worth 20% of your contribution (with minimum donation of $100) towards whale watching with Eagle Wing (expires 31/12/25)
*tax receipts are provided upon request. Minimum $100 donation required.
Why “Exploring the Salish Sea” exists—connection to place
The Salish Sea with its surrounding lands and rivers is home to countless species, and thousands of years of culture and history. We live in a spectacular place worth protecting—a value we want to reinforce in the youth of our community. However, many of us are losing our connection to nature.
The Floating Classroom program gives students an experience that connects them to where they live. It gives them a better understanding of why our back yard is worth protecting. This curriculum-based program uses hands-on learning both in and out of the classroom, to foster connection to place.
Since 2018, over 14,000 students have gone through this award-winning program and become Ambassadors of the Salish Sea. Working with our community partners, Eagle Wing leads the floating classroom as a non-profit program with the goal of allowing any student or school to participate.
The Four-Part Education Program
Session 1 – Introduction
It starts in the classroom, where we introduce ourselves and the Salish Sea from ecological, geographical, cultural, and technological perspectives. Students explore how they are already connected to the Salish Sea, and begin learning about their essential question—the guiding theme throughout their program.
Session 2 – Experience on the Salish Sea
The following week, students step aboard an Eagle Wing vessel for a two-hour adventure on the water! Students are encouraged to tap into their senses. They may see an eagle’s nest, touch and taste kelp, or smell a sea lion. These school trips are about making connections between land, sea, and freshwater, and about critical thinking and learning through experience.
Session 4 – Celebration of Learning
An artifact is the final piece of the program. Each class creates a project that represents what they’ve learned throughout the time they’ve spent with the Eagle Wing team. This final project can be incorporated into many different subjects such as art, creative writing and science, allowing teachers to complete various parts of their curriculum. Previously, students have created poems, video games, 3D art pieces, quilts, dioramas and much more!
Greater Victoria students study the Salish Sea from a floating classroom
Students sail and study the Salish Sea
Eco-tourism operator, schools join forces to teach kids about Salish Sea
Partners
Exploring the Salish Sea is partnered with Wilderness International, a non-profit dedicated to saving old-growth forests and to environmental education. This partnership enables us to operate as a not-for-profit program. 100% of your tax-deductible donation will go directly to financially supporting the Exploring the Salish Sea program and helping us empower the next generation of Salish Sea stewards! Learn more about Wilderness International
Exploring the Salish Sea would not exist without the help of our partners and community support!
Help us protect the future of the Salish Sea. Invest in the children who will be here to watch over it!
Testimonials
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.