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The behaviour is reportedly very different than anything we have seen before with multiple shark breaches each day, lots of competitive behaviour between the individual animals and aggressive and high speed passes under the boat and off the transom. This is very different than the slower and graceful behaviour that we have seen in past seasons. I’m not sure what to make of it and am fearful that the root cause is hungry sharks because of a reduced stock of tuna around Isla Guadalupe.
Read MoreDave and the divemasters reported that the first shark appeared within 20 minutes of putting the first cage in the water. Total number of sightings included at least eight great white sharks (maybe more), including our old friends Shredder (with the tattered dorsal fin) and Bruce.
Read MoreYaayyhhh Shushartie Bay! It’s such a great place to visit. We are usually able to observe lots of black bears on the beach, the shore hiking is great (unless you run into a black bear!) and the kayaking is excellent. Dillon Rock is a famous dive site and is a pinnacle that barely breaks the surface at the entrance to Shushartie Bay. Regardless of the visibility, it is always a crowd-pleasing dive with lots of wolf-eels (7 at last count), lots of giant Pacific octopus (gpd’s to use the local vernacular), a beautiful kelp forest, rare vermillion rock-fish and loads of ratfish swimming around on the flats just off the rock.
Read MoreDive 2 was on what I call the Red Wall portion of Browning Wall. The red soft coral (gersemia rubiformis) is so thick and abundant that the entire wall looks red and there is not even a square inch of bare rock on which to push yourself off with your hand! Visibility was spectacular (maybe some of the best of the year?) and we were able to quite nicely enjoy the dive from the deck of the skiff.
Read MoreOur first dive today was at West Race Wall and the scuba diving there equals world famous Browning Wall (which means that it is pretty darn good). My only surprise of the day was the dearth of sea lions basking in the sunshine on the rocks. I’m used to seeing hundreds of animals here. Instead, we saw a total of 5 stellar sea lions and no California sea lions. Not sure what to make of that.
Read MoreI am very excited to be visiting and diving our old haunts in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Things have been so busy with Socorro, Sea of Cortez and Guadalupe trips that it’s been three years since we did a four day trip through the Gulf Islands. Today was dive day 1 and we spent it in beautiful Porlier Pass diving the “old faithfuls” like Octopus Wall, Alcalla Point and the wreck of the tug Point Grey on Virago Rock. The diving was great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Read MoreToday we got to go diving on a Boeing 737! How often does that happen?! This tired old worn-out Canadian Airlines 737 series 200 (which is the 2nd evolution of the “thirty-seven” and far more fuel thirsty than the 737’s currently flown by the major airlines) was stripped down by a salvage company and then donated to the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia. Peter Luckham (49th Parallel Dive Charters) organized an effort to plop the jet down on top of 4 “stilts” in 95 feet of water just off Chemainus and it is an interesting dive site.
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