Sunny Cove Sea Kayaking Sustainability Practices

Sunny Cove wants your grand kids to be able to share the same quality experience of Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park as you do today. To help make that happen Sunny Cove will operate in an environmentally sustainable fashion and advocate for others to do the same.

• We limit our footprint to select areas within Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park. We do not need to go to the most remote or least visited areas of the park to provide our clients with an authentic wilderness experience. We have chosen areas that are best able to absorb our passing and provide a few amenities (bear boxes), which help keep the wildlife wild.
• Sunny Cove practices Leave No Trace ethics. This practice is not limited to camping. We have not applied for permits to store equipment in the field or to build semi-permanent camps on public lands. We practice what we preach.
• We serve as advocates to preserve and protect the natural environment that sustains us. Sunny Cove has taken an active role in advocating for wild lands to be left wild and in supporting conservation efforts and issues. This includes supporting local conservation organizations with donations and volunteer work.
• We provide our guide staff with the best natural history training possible. Each spring we bring in an expert to work with our staff. Our staff training is usually 7 – 10 days in length, much of which is focused on natural history information. For the last 6 years we have incorporated global warming information into our training sessions and have made that information available to our clients. Sunny Cove has been one of the organizers of a guide training day which brings together all the commercial kayaking companies and local land management agencies.
• We are visitors to our marine habitat and our presence can adversely impact the residents. To ensure we limit our impact, Sunny Cove will follow Marine Mammal viewing guidelines and educate our guests about the potentially negative impact we humans can have on plants and animals. It is our goal to observe wildlife without altering their normal behavior patterns and to experience Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park without leaving a trace.
• We are supportive of our local community. We buy most of our supplies from local businesses and nearly all of our supplies from Alaskan businesses. We also support our local charities and volunteer organizations. We currently provide support to over 20 Alaska non-profit organizations.
• We buy (and on a personal level harvest) local foods like salmon, halibut and berries. We want our clients to experience the best of our local cuisine. Very little of our trip food is wasted. Our guide staff does a good job consuming any leftovers.
• We run our operations in the most fuel-efficient way we can. Last year we did an energy audit of our main building. This led to a construction project which raised our energy rating nearly 2 stars. We provide bicycles for our staff, offer car-pooling for work transport and use our vehicles as little as possible.
   
  

It is our hope that through these policies we operate in a sustainable fashion helping ensure that you and your grand kids enjoy this beautiful place that is our home.

Sunny Cove was recently awarded a gold level certification by Adventure Green Alaska.  AGA is a certification program for tourism businesses operating in Alaska that meet specific standards of economic, environmental and social sustainability. Sunny Cove is proud to be recognized as a leader for sustainable tourism.

Professionally guided Alaskan experiences since 1996