Our Staff
Ollie The Orca - Mascot
Ollie is our newest team member; she joined our team just before Canada Day in 2010! She is a Resident Orca and loves to eat Salmon. Keep a look out for Ollie as she is roaming the docks and boats, you might even see her downtown Campbell River!! And by the way.....kids love to give Ollie a good whale hug!Heike Wieske – President & CEO
I am excited about sharing with you the beauty and wildlife of our area. Having had 8 years of experience in the Marine Tourism industry I have a clear picture of what our visitors expect when they sign up for one of our safaris. I want you to really feel how dedicated we are right from the moment of your inquiries, your reservations, the check-in and then the actual tour. We have our hearts in what we are doing and our goal is to make this safari the highlight of your trip. We are organized and energetic and love dealing with tourists from all over the world.And I particularly enjoy greeting our guests when they step off the boat and listen to the excitement of their trip. Seeing a whale or Grizzly on a photo is nice but being close to them and seeing, listing or even smelling them in their natural habitat…. that’s an experience nobody can ever take away from you!!!!
Our fabulous staff in the office and our knowledgable and responsible boat crew is excited to welcome you all!
Geord Dunstan - Captain & Owner
Being born and raised in Campbell River has given me a very unique connection to our diverse marine ecosystem. With 20 years experience as a captain of fishing, whale watching, and freight vessels, I have an extensive marine background. I am very excited about being part of DMS, where sharing our passion for these beautiful and majestic creatures is truly what we are all about. Answering your questions and talking about the animals is something I thoroughly enjoy. It's not uncommon to see myself or my co-captains, Warren and Joel and our passionate naturalist Mark, bursting with excitement as a whale surfaces along side the boat.
Everyday on the water is a blessing and I look forward to sharing this with you soon.
Joel Bridle - Captain
Over the last thirty years I’ve had the fortune of making a living on the sea. Sailing with a lot of great companies in my past, my good fortune has continued having joined the Discovery Marine Safaris team. I get to skipper the nicest small passenger vessels on the coast into the most beautiful waters to see incredible wildlife. At the same time meeting people from all over the world. Heike tells me that I don’t have to pay to come to work, but actually get paid!! I guess I’ll just keep pinching myself!! Mark Evans - Head Naturalist & Captain
Eco tourism, wildlife and the sustainability of our natural environment is my passion. I have been blessed in my life having worked in some of our natural worlds most unique and stunning environments, from Australia, to Tanzania, Bolivia, Nepal, US and now beautiful Vancouver Island in BC. For me personally eco tourism is all about connecting people to our natural environment, for the connection breeds relevance and relevance breeds knowledge and most importantly care. I am very excited to be part of this dynamic team for another exciting season and look forward to sharing our beautiful part of the world with you.
Lucy Schoenfelder
For those of you who met Lucy over the last two seasons, Jack , her little boy is over a year now, walks and almost talks. Jack doesn’t want to share his mummy too much, so Lucy will be managing the office part time this season. Her fluent French helped many guests in the past!Gaby Chaykowski - Marketing & Creative
Gaby was born and raised in beautiful Bavaria, Germany, where she also studied the Art of Graphic Design. Her passion has always been nature, and animals in particular. In 1993 she decided to pack her cat and her suitcase and move to the land of her dreams and has never looked back."Working with Discovery Marine Safaris gives me the chance to do what I love best: helping people to get an understanding of our beautiful BC coast and to discover some of the incredible wildlife that we are blessed with. Nothing beats the sparkle in our guests' eyes when they come back from one of our trips and tell me what they have seen today!"
Gaby also takes care of our marketing and advertising. She makes sure that we look great, and that our customers can easily find us in a crowd when they look for a premier tour operator with ethics and the mission: Your Adventure is our Passion!
Dominik Friede – Marketing & IT Director
Although I have also moved permanently to Calgary to join the Calgary Fire department to safe lives, I am not completely done with helping Discovery Marine Safaris. I am still keeping a close eye on our website, maintaining our social media pages and giving technical support to our team "thanks to Skype"!! I will be visiting in the summer and my fiancee and I are planning our 2012 wedding on "Tenacious III". It'll be our dream wedding!!! Being born in Berlin, Germany, I fell in love with the great Canadian out-doors as soon as I got here. Almost fourteen years later, and I still get as excited about seeing Orcas and Grizzlies as I did for my first time!! It’s this excitement that keeps me attached to this business.
Let’s make your dreams come true! Let’s go find us some Orcas!!