- Type
- Wall
- Typical depth
- 20 m
- Level
- Advanced
- Visibility
- 5–25 m
- Water temp
- 8–14 °C
- Current
- Moderate
- Access
- Open access
- Min cert
- Advanced Open Water
- Cold Water
- Wall
- Drysuit Required
- Fjord
- Remote
- Winter Best For Viz
When to dive
BestAvoidOK
Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island is classic Pacific Northwest cold-water diving — granite walls dropping into deep fjord water, plumose anemone gardens, giant Pacific octopus dens, and wolf eels in residence. Counter-intuitively, winter (Nov–Mar) gives the best viz: spring/summer plankton blooms drop visibility to a few metres, while winter water clears to 15–25 m. Drysuit + 7 mm hood and gloves required year-round (8–12 °C).
48.8333° N, 125.1667° W
Notes
Cold-water reef, giant Pacific octopus.
Marine life
- Sharks
- six-gill shark (rare, deep), dogfish
- Whales & dolphins
- Steller sea lion, harbour seal, transient orca (surface), grey whale (passing Mar–May)
- Reef fish
- lingcod, rockfish (yelloweye, quillback, copper, china), greenling, wolf eel (resident pairs), cabezon
- Cephalopods
- giant Pacific octopus, red octopus, stubby squid
- Invertebrates
- plumose anemone fields, crimson anemone, Puget Sound king crab, Dungeness crab, red sea urchin, sunflower star (recovering), basket star, cloud sponge
Dive clubs that visit this site
- Emerald Ocean Charterssource
Bamfield, BC (Vancouver Island), Canada · Day boat
- Rendezvous Dive Adventuressource
Bamfield, BC (Vancouver Island), Canada · Dive centre
- Vancouver Diving Lockersource
Vancouver, BC (trips to Barkley Sound), Canada · Dive centre
Sources
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