Diving and Waiting Out the Storm – Day 2

By on June 10th, 2008 in Archive

It didn’t take much convincing for me to stage another dive there today. Finished the day off with a shore visit to the old whaling station at Coal Harbour on the far side of the Narrows. Coal Harbour was originally a coal mining town (go figure huh!!). It became a coastal defense station during World War 2 with large hangars, over 700 personnel and a fleet of Stranraer flying boats and Canso (aka PBY or Catalina) amphibious aircraft as well as fleet of high speed RCAF air-sea rescue boats (the dinner charter boat Malecite which still works out of Granville Island was one of these air-sea rescue boats and somewhat famous for trying to rescue the crew of a Stranraer that crashed in open ocean in 1944).

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Muck Diving in British Columbia

By on June 9th, 2008 in Archive

Our scuba divers loved it as they found every imaginable sort of nudibranch and “muck” creature. I was a bit skeptical when they surfaced and gleefully told us that it was fabulous British Columbia muck diving but everyone seemed to have a great time. One diver even found the steel hull of a shipwreck on one side of the island. We staged dives 2 and 3 at slack in Quatsino Narrows and very good dives were had by all.

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Is the Male Sex Organ of a Ratfish on it’s Forehead or Not?

By on June 8th, 2008 in Archive

I have to state for the record that I stand corrected on all the scuba diving briefings that I have given on this site over the years. Ratfish are indeed a member of the shark “family” as I thought. My mistake was in thinking that the sexual organ of the male ratfish is on it’s forehead (which kind of makes sense in a bit of a twisted way). There is definitely “something” that extends and retracts on the forehead of male ratfish but it turns out to be a “third clasper.” Like other sharks and rays, the male ratfish has 2 claspers underneath and close to their stern. Unlike any other cartilaginous fish, the ratfish has a 3rd clasper on it’s forehead that it apparently uses to latch on to the pectoral fin of a female during mating. One of the guests on this trip has the photographic evidence that clearly shows this. I stand corrected – the male ratfish has a clasper used to facilitate sex on it’s forehead. The sharks’ sexual organ is in the regular place.

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Diving the Beautiful and Famous Browning Pass

By on June 7th, 2008 in Archive

Dive #1 was on Browning Wall with it’s densely packed populations of soft corals, sponges and invertebrate life. It is just as colourful and dense as the best of the south Pacific. Dive #2 was on Hussar Point. Dive #3 was on Snowfall where all the white plumose anemones were “out” (rather than being retracted).

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Blown Out of Blowhole

By on June 6th, 2008 in Archive

Dive #2 was “off-slack” at Pearse Wall. The slipper cucumbers here are normally a huge hit but the very strong current was back-eddying the wrong way on the wall and the divers weren’t able to make it to the “hot” part of the dive site. Dive #3 was at the very aptly named Blowhole. Between 20 knot west winds and very strong currents, it’s easy to see why locals call this narrow little pass “Blowhole.” The site is beautiful with anemones and gersemia rubiformis (soft red coral) but the real feature is hundreds of basket stars including a canyon absolutely loaded with them.

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The Start of our Cold-Water Diving Season

By on June 5th, 2008 in Archive

Our British Columbia and Alaska scuba diving adventures are among my  favourite trips of the year and I am anxious to get going. We were up very late last night and all the staff made one heckuva an effort to wrap this year’s intensive and extensive refit and overhaul in time to board our guests at noon.

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Scuba Dive with the Wolf Eels at Dillon Rock

By on June 6th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike

Dillon Rock is a barely submerged pinnacle marked by a small green light at the entrance to Shushartie Bay and is surely the most famous place in the world to scuba dive with wolf eels. I have personally seen up to 7 wolf eels here on just one dive. This is also the only place that I have ever had the extremely rare experience of been bitten by a wolf eel (a male that I believe to be “alpha” came up behind me and latched onto my leg as I lay on the mud bottom taking a picture of another wolf eel). Being bitten by a wolf eel is virtually unheard of.

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