Nautilus LiveaboardsI am always up for trying 2 or 3 exploratory new dives on a trip if our guests are “up” for it. The folks on this trip are terrific sports and up for exploratory diving. We lucked out today with the discovery of a beautiful, albeit current-sensitive, pinnacle loaded with invertebrate life including corals, sponges and anemones as well as a giant pacific octopus and wolf eels.
Read MoreWe tested my theory yesterday on a scuba diving site I named Vancouver Rock (in honour of the legendary explorer of this coast – Captain George Vancouver – I’m a fan of his) and sure enough, found 3 mated pairs of wolf eels sitting in the back-eddy on the ebb tide. Whoooeeee. We went back to Vancouver Rock today for more exploration and one of our guests – James Negris from Seattle – spotted a total of 10 WOLF EELS on one dive!
Read MoreThe intense invertebrate life on Browning Wall is so thick and prolific and colourful that you cannot see the underlying rock at all. Until you’ve actually seen the brilliant reds, oranges, yellows, whites and all the amazing colours of the soft corals and other inverts, it is almost impossible to imagine how fantastic coldwater diving is. The tiny pinnacle of Dillon Rock is a story onto itself with 6+ wolfeels hiding in cracks and crevices, numerous giant pacific octopus, rarely sighted vermillion rockfish, a lovely kelp forest at the west side of the rock teeming with black rockfish, and dozens of chimera (ratfish in the shark family) cruising around on the sand bottom just off the rock. Great diving and a lovely day was had by all. Even the black bears cooperated with multiple beach appearances.
Read MoreDive #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).
Read MoreDive #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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