Location: Wreck of the Princess Sophia, Lynn Canal, Juneau, southeast Alaska The wreck of the Princess Sophia is one of the great tragedies of this area. The ship was a beautiful small liner belonging to the Canadian Pacific Railroad and sank in 1918 on t Vanderbilt reef with the tragic loss of all hands. What made it especially […]
Read MoreLocation: Wreck of the State of California, Admiralty Island, southeast Alaska It’s been a funny start to this trip. The last trip was absolutely smashing with flat calm seas, gorgeous weather, loads of animals and superb visibility on the Alaska portion of our travels. This trip got off to a tougher start with wind and rain and […]
Read MoreI found a new species of octopus. We’re calling it a 12 stiff legged fuscia pacific octopus. There you go (note from Mike – I think Barbara Ann is enjoying happy hour). It was a superlative day for diving. Quatsino #1 had a predicted abundance of rockfish, lingcod, greenling, wolfeel. Dive #2 at the new site […]
Read MoreThe amazing thing is that there is a ledge on the wall 285 feet below the surface and as the ship was sliding down the wall, the stern wedged itself on the ledge and the ship came to a dead stop in a vertical orientation! The stern of the 180ft ship is at 285 feet and the bow is at 110 feet! It’s not often one gets to see a large fishing vessel pinned vertically to a wall! I did one of my most memorable dives ever here when my instructor and I splashed to 285 feet on Inspiration rebreathers. The water was so clear that we could see from the stern all the way to the bow looking straight up towards the surface through a cloud of rockfish swimming around the mast (and no, I wasn’t narc’d!!).
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 MoreWe capped the day off with a visit to the Quatsino lighthouse and were given a wonderful tour by the very friendly lighthouse keepers. Quatsino is a beautiful place and I won’t soon forget watching the sun stream through the trees on the steep and heavily wooded hillside beside our anchorage. But without a doubt, the highlight of the day was steaming 1/2 mile offshore from dreaded Solander Island off Brooks Peninsula. It was a spectacular sight in surprising calm seas – calm enough that I actually thought of staging a spontaneous dive off Solander (which is something I am sure nobody has ever done before).
Read MoreI 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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