Octopus Hole

[rakjar]

I heard that Octopus Hole was closed to diving. Is this true?

Has anyone else heard this little tid bit of info?

Hope not, good dive site.

 

[BMW]

I heard that Octopus Hole was closed to diving. Is this true?

Has anyone else heard this little tid bit of info?

Hope not, good dive site.

Drove past the site on Thursday (Oct 8) and there is now a big 'no trespassing' sign. There is a thread somewhere on this site with more details.

 

[customdivemaster]

If you stop into Mikes Dive center. It is before you get to hoodsport and see mike or Shirley they can give you permission to dive the site. it is their property. They just want to know who is using the site. I think we owe them that much respect. They are great people

 

[VooDooGasMan]

so mike wants the divers to show up to his shop, I say that is reasonable, the mix up I see is when the divers are there with permission, than other divers see them and pull in and go diving. maybe mike should make it be known, weather sign, or I guess ron ault,seems like theres more to it than permission. yet I know mike does things the easy way. hope this all works out, with no arguments on shore and all.

Happy Diving

 

[no excuses]

was divers up there today parked along the road and diving, do not know if they had permission. I came in off a boat so did not need to ask . Was a great day, saw several wolf eals and GPO's Looks like everything is low on O2, samething as up at sundrock..

 

[tsc]

the public has had access to that site for so long- it'll make for an interesting story at some point.

 

[drdaddy]

I was at Hood Canal a couple of months ago. The year before, our group had stayed at Mike and Shirley's rental and they had told us "fine to dive Octopus Hole". But this time, I had called Shirley and since we were not part of a group, it would have been too much to rent the entire house, so we went to Mike's Beach Resort (this is a different "Mike", for those that don't know) and rented a room. When driving past Octopus Hole we saw big new signs that said "No Trespassing!!!" So we turned around and asked at the local dive shop, Hood Sport 'n Dive. They said that no one could close off Octopus Hole because it was in the public waterway and only the highway department could keep you from parking there - and they hadn't. They said everyone was still diving there, even that morning "such and such" had gone diving there. So we went diving there. A couple of days later I got a hold of Shirley (Mike's gone a lot), and stopped by. She told us that Octopus Hole is closed. They had found out that their liability insurance that they had been paying on for so many years would not cover "commercial", which they were told they were if they let their customers use Octopus Hole - so it is closed.

In the meantime, people keep diving Octopus Hole. When we are up there next time (after checking at Hood Sport 'n Dive), we will probably also dive it. Because we have been told - Parking is on the public highway and the public right-a-way goes right down to the waterline and nobody (everyone) owns the water - so people are going diving there. I guess if someone gets injured and decides to go for the deep pockets - they'll be suing the State of Washington. Actually - don't sue - it's the lawyers (fear of) who are shutting down these places to us!!!!

Obviously, I'm not recommending anyone trespass, dive, or not dive Octopus Hole. I'm just telling what I heard. It's a great wall to dive - lings, octopus, beautiful sea anomie, wolf eels, and gigantic rockfish.

 

[drdaddy]

I keep checking to see if anyone else has any update on Octopus Hole.

Please advise.

drdaddy

 

[no excuses]

I just dive it by boat then I dont have to worry about if the land is cosed off or not :cool2:.. Make a first dive at Sund rock and then cruise on up to Octo hole makes for a nice couple of easy quick dives.