Location: Solander Island, Brooks Peninsula, west coast Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada So who in their right mind would dive Solander Island? Following is the description of Solander in the British Columbia south coast sailing directions – shores are rocky and mountains rise abruptly to elevations in excess of 2000 feet. The continential shelf lies only 4 miles SW where […]
Read MoreLocation: Browning Pass, Port Hardy, British Columbia Well, it’s the start of our British Columbia and Alaska season and we are very happy to be back in our home waters. Scuba diving in Mexico with great white sharks, giant pacific manta rays, dolphins and lots of other sharks is awesome. But it’s also nice to be home. First dives of this […]
Read MoreI 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 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 MoreEureka Platform sits in around 500 feet of water which makes it an oasis in the ocean desert. After getting permission from the platform thanks to the help of Captain Mike (is it a rule that all Captains get renamed Mike?) of the supply vessel Isabel El, we staged two dives here and the general consensus was that it was well worth the skiff ride. There is a very definite vertical line as you descend where the mussels leave off and the anemones take over at about 30 feet. There is also a marked difference between the life on each of the legs which presumably is due to differing light conditions and water movement. Some legs were covered in strawberry anemones, others in the white metridium. In amongst the anemones were barnacles and small amounts of kelp, sponges and corals.
Read More
