Sam and I went out for an evening dive at Whytecliff. We went in at the Cut, and despite a very brown surface layer had a very good dive. I didn't take any video or pictures, just used my eyes. All the photos below came courtesy of the Emerald Diving Species Index.
We saw painted greenlings.
Kelp greenlings.
Many copper rockfish.
And quillback rockfish.
There was a juvenile yellow eye.
Crimson anemones.
Golf ball crabs.
Fried egg jellies (many caught by giant plumose anemones).
Lots of giant nudibranchs.
Also lots of white lined dironas.
The highlight of the dive was a giant pacific octopus under the boulder just beside the plumose gardens. We checked under the plumose garden plaque, but nothing was home there.
I also spied many of what I thought were Kincaid's Shrimp all over a cloud sponge, but more of a transparent colour variant. In the Pacific Marine Life book, it was noted that a transparent variety could often be found on cloud sponges. I probably should have gotten video of this. Next time!
After an excellent time celebrating Canada Day, we went out with the Topline on the Saturday. It had been quite a while since we had gone out with them, and it would definitely be fun!
The day was perfect, not too hot, but sunny. The boat wasn't very full, so we had lots of room, too. All told, there were five of us on board, not including Steve and Bob running the show. Perfect!
We had a bit of a problem getting out of the bay with some trouble with a pretty big branch. Sam lent some assistance gearing up quickly and un-jamming things. So we were on our way without much trouble.
Without going much further, the video compilation :-)
Steve took us past North Bowyer Island for a look-see, but the currents were running pretty fiercely, so we went to the back side of Bowyer first. The top surface layer didn't look very appealing, and we hoped that the generally good visibility reports lately would still hold true. We didn't have to worry, as sure enough, visibility cleared up nicely under 20 feet.
We had one of the best dives on the back side of Bowyer that I can remember. Many critters, and lots of good opportunities for photos and video.
Right off the bat, a very photogenic golf-ball crab.
And a spiny lithoid crab, surprisingly out in the open, and not hiding in a crack. He had a snack in his claws too.
And this one was trying to make a meal of a much larger sea star.
I wasn't quite sure what this sculpin was, but it was very pretty.
And a pretty swimming anemone.
Heather got some good video and pictures of an energetic swimming scallop.
A huge field of zooanthids.
And, we came across a small type of crab we had not noticed before, the pygmy rock crab.
There were huge masses of nudibranch eggs everywhere as well.
This poor sea star got away from something, and was regrowing almost all of it's arms!
Finally, we saw a very odd bivalve, but I wasn't sure what it was. Donna Gibbs from the Vancouver Aquarium helped me out, identifying it as a lampshell. It was in the big green Pacific Life book, but I guess I didn't look hard enough!
After a very relaxing surface interval, we motored over to North Bowyer, and the current had laid down considerably. Bob explained where we might find some wolf eels, and we planned to try and check them out. On the way, we came across a whole bunch of fried egg jellies, some caught by giant plumose anemones.
The wolf eels weren't home, unfortunately, but we had a great dive regardless. The highlight was a field of tube dwelling anemones being preyed on by giant nudibranchs. They were everywhere. One nudibranch tried to dive down on an anemone, but just missed. It was all in the video compilation.
I just missed the up-line on the way back, but we put up an SMB and ascended up the pinnacle. On the surface, the boat was not far away. So close! I would have to brush up on some navigation :-)
Kelvin Grove was so good on Sunday that we decided to go back on Thursday for an evening dive. Heather had helped get me a replacement glove system, and I was itching to try it out. I wasn't disappointed in the Kubi system, it was fantastic. Uncomplicated, reliable and easy to use. I also liked the extra dexterity from the thinner gloves as compared to the blue gloves I had used for so long. It was also really nice to take the gloves off easily.
It was a busy night at Kelvin Grove, just before Canada Day. Ocean Quest was out, and there were about 6 divers all-told (including us). The expanded parking really helped, with about 5 additional visitor spots. It was a very warm evening, and it was a bit sweaty gearing up and getting into the water, but it wasn't too bad. The surface layer was very warm (my dive computer showed 18 degrees at the end of the dive). You could really tell that it had been very sunny for the last few days. Off to the left on the rocky point there was a large group of people cliff diving. I didn't know you could get out there, and it looked like they used the rail line to walk out there. A fun long-weekend activity!
The dive was great. We did a bit of stage bottle practice, tried out Heather's black light (to cause things to fluoresce), and generally had a good dive.
We saw the same clown nudibranchs, still laying eggs.
The highlight was a large decorated war bonnet out in the open. Couldn't get much better than this! It was almost a foot long, and basically posed for us for quite a while.
There were more giant nudibranchs, and Heather saw one swimming on its own.
I think this was a bi-colored nudibranch, very pretty.
One sea star was regrowing several arms!
The fluorescence experiment worked somewhat, but we needed some additional filters. The light certainly worked!
Kelvin Grove certainly had given us some good dives, lately.
I hadn't been to Kelvin Grove in a while, and it was the perfect day for it. Some changes had been made there. Most notably the end of the cul-de-sac had been cleared and a new house was being built. It would have an amazing view. A better change was more parking! There were at least 10 spots now instead of the old 5. Very nice! Here was, the video compilation and pictures follow. Heather and I saw a lot on this dive.
Quite a few fried egg jelly fish.
Here was Heather posing with one.
Large clown nudibranchs laying eggs.
It looked like this sea cucumber was trying to eat one of the clown nudibranchs too.
A beaded anemone.
A whole mess of giant nudibranchs.
We also found a type of sea cucumber that we'd not seen (or noticed!) before. The peppered sea cucumber.
At the end of the dive, Heather found an impressive lewis moonsnail. Fantastic purple colour!
I was trying out a different drysuit to see how crushed neoprene and a neoprene neck seal would feel for me. It definitely was warm and flexible. I could see why people who do underwater work liked them, they certainly felt durable and substantial. The neck seal was a bit loose on me, so I ended up with quite a lot of water in the suit, but it wasn't cold. So all in all, a good experience trying something new. I firmly believed the more you know and tried, the better informed and knowledgeable you would be. Happy diver!
Heather and I were in Alert Bay again to visit, and since the last dive was so good we decided to do it again. Both our dry suits were in for alterations, so we decided to use wet suits instead. I had never dove in a wet suit before in cold water, so it would be an interesting experience! Here is the photographic proof:
We had tried to dive at Porteau Cove the weekend before but the chocolate water turned us away. I think it was the first time we had ever called a dive for that reason! In contrast, the visibility in Alert Bay was again excellent (over 40 feet at least). We could see the bottom easily from the dock.
The day was a bit cloudy and rainy, but at least it was cool. How cool I would soon discover. The initial walk into the water was great until the water got into my wet suit boots. Brrr! Heather had wrangled the Cadillac of BARE Sports of wet suits for me, so it was pretty comfortable for the most part. The worst was when I moved my arms and new cold water would come in around my neck into the areas around my shoulders and back. I learned to be very economical in my movements.
The dive was as good, if not better than the previous one. No octopus, but many more Helmut crabs, and at least 5 crescent gunnels in the eel grass. Very cool! Here was me at the start of the dive.
And here was Heather.
You could see just how good the visibility was.
Heather found a light edged ribbon worm. Neither of us had seen one of these before.
Heather also found a pacific snake prickleback, about a foot long hiding in the kelp.
We followed the old break water to the end again. On the way, we found a lot of critters.
A very pretty anemone (I think a pale crimson anemone).
Some unidentified gelatinous thing on the bottom. I would have to investigate more.
An interesting sculpin.
An anemone that we had seen in the Vancouver Aquarium tanks, also living on eel grass.
Many helmut crabs.
A large sea lemon.
We came across an old Honda generator too. I didn't think it was fixable!
Near the point where it changed from North to North East we came across the wreck again. I realized this time that it was a different boat from the one I had seen sunk at the docks. There was no way that we had covered that distance away from the break water. This time I got a photo. Not a big thing, but still neat.
This picture was looking up through the dock pilings.
We also found more large shag mouse nudibranchs.
Heading back, we moved over the eel grass beds to the west and found another parallel breakwater, but the top was cut off below the waterline. Later Heather's relative's would confirm that it was indeed an older breakwater. Over the years many things had come and gone in the harbor. Apparently there were several old cars lost out there too! The pilings were coated with even more giant plumose anemones. They reminded me of the Capilano wreck, where they looked like fringes or halos.
In the eelgrass we were surprised to come across a large number of crescent gunnels. Neat!
Also, I'm pretty sure I found either a juvenile sailfin sculpin, or a silverspotted sculpin in the eelgrass too. There were an endless number of kelp crabs, snails and other critters in there tool Eelgrass certainly was productive.
The dive itself was almost 50 minutes so we did pretty good for wet suits. My computer said the water temperature was 10 degrees.
I could now say with confidence that I preferred dry suits over wet suits. You could do it, and I might do it again in a pinch, but for cold water, give me my dry suit!
Finally, here was the video compilation that I put together.
