April 2012 Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) photos/reports

[MarkH]

index (Haida Point)
index (Second Beach)
index (No-name Island)
index (Boiler Point)
index (Kwuna Point)

I still can't figure out how to have my links say something other than "index".

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Very nice photos. I want to dive the Queen Charlotte Islands one day.

As for your links, I believe this forum automatically takes the "title" element from the HTML code. Thus, you need to change the "title" on each web page. I'm not sure which web design software you use (or if you just write the HTML code yourself), but if you go into the page options on each page, it should have the option to customize the title.

I guess your software default for the title is "index" or you're copy-and-pasting a template for each new page that has the title set as "index".

 

[walrus2]

I wonder if that small black rockfish was the same one on multiple dives? Very strange. In 5 dives at the Sunshine coast this weekend we saw several fish (but no stellar sea lions, that would have been cool). Did you find any other reports/descriptions of dive sites at Haida Gwaii?

 

[MarkH]

I wonder if that small black rockfish was the same one on multiple dives? Very strange. In 5 dives at the Sunshine coast this weekend we saw several fish (but no stellar sea lions, that would have been cool). Did you find any other reports/descriptions of dive sites at Haida Gwaii?

I've never heard any detailed reports about diving up there so I had no idea what to expect. I imagine that there are a wide range of marine ecosystems just like down here (semi-protected Hecate Strait, the exposed outer coast, very protected inlets (Massett Inlet), high-current channels, etc. all with varying depths and salinities. I expect these different areas would be as different as Howe Sound is from Browning Pass is from Nanaimo is from Juan de Fuca Strait. Unfortunately I only got to have a look at one area (Skidegate Inlet). The weather was pouring rain and gale-force winds for most of the week so even if I had access to a dive-friendly boat, It wouldn't have been able to go anywhere. The last 2 or 3 days were calmer and even partially sunny so I was more free to find shore dives that weren't dependent on being protected from the wind by a point or a bay. I was hoping to dive in Rennell Sound, which is the only spot on the West Coast of the Islands accessible by a logging road, but the guide books don't tell you that the road is only open in the Summer. When I was there, it was covered by 8 feet of snow. A logging company tried to send a front-end-loader in to clear it, but it got stuck and was abandoned. Some of the other places I had a look at to dive (Massett Inlet and Juskatla Inlet) were a caramel brown colour from the tannic runoff. The other shore-accessible places (North Beach, East Beach, the Sandspit area) didn't look that interesting on a chart (very shallow and sandy for a long way out). Everyone thinks of the Gwaii Hanas National Park when they think of diving up there, but of course it's only accessible by float plane or boat (with a permit applied for well in advance) and the distance is like taking a boat from Victoria to Nanaimo. It's possible on a calm day, but most people do it as a multi-day trip. When I casually mentioned to a few locals in Queen Charlotte City that I saw sealions on my dives, they were amazed and said they had never seen them before. Even seals seemed rare. I was really surprised by the almost complete lack of fish. One guy on the ferry said that they were all fished out, but that wouldn't explain the lack of tiny gobies, sculpins, etc. One thing I noticed was that my camera tripod (and a girl's wallet I found underwater) smelt up my car after a dive from the mud (hydrogen sulfide?). Maybe this toxin had something to do with it. The diversity of invertebrate species seemed very low even though the rocks were covered with them (mostly brown cup corals). There were almost no anemones and I don't remember seeing any tunicates. I did get to see a nudibranch that I've never seen before (polycera tri-colour). The ID guides say it's range was as far North as Barkley Sound, but I saw lots of them on my dives.

 

[walrus2]

Interesting. If it's hydrogen sulphide near the shore for some reason there must be fish further out or the sea lions would have to eat brown cup corals? So many places to explore... Thanks for the writeup.

 

[MarkH]

Interesting. If it's hydrogen sulphide near the shore for some reason there must be fish further out or the sea lions would have to eat brown cup corals? So many places to explore... Thanks for the writeup.

The herring spawn was due any day in Skidegate Inlet. I assumed the sealions were following them.