Whiskey Cove Crab Dive 30/08/2015

Heather and I had talked about going crabbing off and on for quite a while, but never quite seemed to make it. We had several books, and even attended a "how to crab" session at one of the marine stores in town. We had the crab sizing tool, marine fishing licenses, a crab bag; pretty much everything you would need to go do it. We just hadn't gone!

So, we finally took the opportunity to knock two things off our list: go crabbing, and explore a new dive site. Specifically, Whiskey Cove near Belcarra. I had heard of it, but had never dove it before. Wendy from Heather's office also took the opportunity to come along.

Getting to Whiskey Cove wasn't hard, but it was a bit of a drive, and the directions we had left a bit to be desired. I found the best way to plot your directions was to use the bus stop, that is located right there.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/SB+Belcarra+Rd+FS+Whiskey+Cove+Lane

There was space for maybe 3 or 4 cars to park. The trail that leads down to the entry was clearly marked as well. We made a note to be quiet as well, since the beach is right between several houses. Conscientious divers would make for happy residents, and no nasty articles in the newspaper! Wendy got a good picture of what the entry looked like at low tide.

I would certainly recommend aiming for high tide when diving here. Also, there were many docks and boats, so you really needed to watch where you ascended at the end of your dive.

The dive went pretty well, but we didn't succeed in keeping any of the crabs we caught. All were under the size limit. There were also an incredible number of females, which you couldn't keep. Out of maybe 15 crabs that we inspected, only 2 of them were males, and both of them were too small. Still, we could see why Whiskey was a popular site for crabbing. There were loads of dungeness, as well as red rock crabs. The dive itself was shallow and easy. We went along the rock wall on the right side. You might make 15 meters or 50 feet of depth if you were lucky.

Visibility was pretty good as well, despite the recent storm we had. We even managed to get a few photos. Here was the prey. They sure could pinch if you didn't grab them right! I wore wet-gloves for the first time in 5 years, and that worked out pretty well. I didn't have to worry so much about the claws cutting my dry gloves.

We also got a funny selfie at the surface, when I was mucking around with the camera.

We also came across some nice moon jellies.

Finally, we even managed to get a very short bit of video.

All in all, a lot of fun! We would be back, hopefully when the crabs had grown a bit bigger.