An Underwater Interview with BC’s Marine Detective

Fourteen metres below the ocean’s surface, Jackie Hildering hoists her underwater camera and snaps a picture. The camera’s flash temporarily introduces the full light spectrum to the blue-tinged world, making the red and gold scales of a yellowtail rockfish sparkle.

She’s diving in the plankton-rich waters of the Kwak̕wala-speaking peoples just outside of Port McNeil on northeastern Vancouver Island.

The water is just below 12 C today — balmy by local standards — and late summer sun streams through the canopy of the bull kelp forest.

Down here, the only sound audible to human ears is the steady stream of bubbles as Hildering exhales.

Today marks her 1,557th dive, which means she’s spent roughly 1,167 hours under these local waves since she discovered diving in her mid-30s.

“I wanted to know one place and be a conduit for that one place,” she says.

Hildering is a cold-water diver, underwater photographer, humpback whale researcher and biology educator. She teaches people about the incredible underwater world she explores with her blog the Marine Detective , and she helped co-found the Marine Education and Research Society , which studies marine mammals and works to educate boaters on how to be safe around whales.

Last year, Hildering was honoured by the King Charles III Coronation Medal , which is awarded to people who make a significant contribution to Canada.

She felt “deeply honoured” to be recognized but felt a bit awkward to wear a medal with the king’s face on it, so she balanced out the evening by draping herself in copper jewelry made by the local Indigenous artist łlilawikw, who makes jewelry for her shop Sea Wisdom Design .

This approach — gently working towards positive change — also shows up in Hildering’s blog and on her social media channels, where she sends a message of joy, curiosity and empathy.

When you spend enough time studying how perfectly marine life fits together, it’s easier to see how “we weirdo humans are much more similar to one another than we realize,” she said.

But people get distracted by societal pressures, where happiness gets equated to consumerism, excessive affluence and the debilitating pressures of beauty norms, she told The Tyee.

People are further isolated by algorithms and a media world that is designed to cause overwhelm, despair, inaction and disconnection — something she refuses to feed into.

So she pushes back by introducing people to the wonder and beauty of the world beneath the waves.