BradnerBoy
Contributor
Wow...WOW...WOW :cool3:
I don't know if the vis miraculously cleared this past week everywhere, but if you're afraid of heights, you wouldn't have enjoyed the diving this weekend near Porteau and Pam Rocks/Anvil Island area...it was phenomenal.
Four of us piled into my boat, launched at Porteau and headed to Pam Rocks for the first time. We really didn't know what to expect. Our arrival was greeted by a couple dozen seals sunning themselves on the rocks and frolicking in the water.
Initially, since this was our first boat dive and no one was left to look after the boat, the intention was to somehow tie it up to the rocks and then essentially do a shore dive. Once we got out there, there was a decent amount of boat traffic including commercial crab boats, so I wasn't concerned about leaving it.
On our first dive, we anchored to the north east "inside" the rocks (they're sort of arranged in a half-moon shape) in 40' of water and descended down the anchor line. The first 10' were not bad - there was a considerable thermocline as the top layer was quite warm, but once we dropped below that, it was friggin' unreal...I swear we were in the topics. Each of us literally blinked several times and kinda shook our heads in disbelief at how clear it was. By the time we hit the bottom at 40', were throwin' shakas, nodding and swearing into our regs at how beautiful and clear it was.
We headed north to the inside of the base of the first few rocks. The bottom was littered with life. For those of you that have yet to see a nudibranch, you gotta go to Pam Rocks...I've never seen such a concentration of nudis, especially the Gold Dirona, as I saw yesterday. To top it all off...I spotted what I believe was a Giant Dendronotid (Giant Nudibranch). We took some video of it and once I receive it from my buddy, I'll post it. I held my hand up to it for scale and it appeared to be about 2 times the length of my hand. From what I've read, they can reach 10", but this one seemed longer. An incredible specimen. And par for this dive, 15' later, there was a second one (no, the first one wasn't fast enough to get ahead of me).
We saw the usual suspects; stars, crabs, massive anemones, swimming scallops, sea peaches and squirts, huge purple urchins, etc., etc., etc. But everything seemed larger here and with the clear water, certainly much more colourful and brighter. I believe a considerable amount of water flows through this area, which I suspect, accounts for the abundance of sea life, but whatever the reason, it was very cool.
After the first dive, we got back into the boat, raced back to Porteau to swap tanks and get our lunches and raced back our for a second dive.
This time we started at the north end by the smallest rock and attempted to do a 360 around all the rocks. We snorkeled close to the little rock where the seals were basking and dropped down to the bottom at about 15'. We made our way around clockwise. On the east side of the small rock, there's a fantastic shelf formation that drops down from 20' to 60' in steps. you can swim around the north end of the rock at one depth, drop down to another depth and swim back the opposite direction and do this a couple times before hitting the sandy bottom at about 60'. Again, clear vis for at least 40'.
I chased a few crabs as I had my tidal license with me and a game bag, but as luck would have it, they were all under sized. We made our way around the west side of the rocks and almost the whole time, we could see the seals off in the distance...far enough away to be safe from us, but close enough to check us out. The odd time, the young white ones would come quite close, say 8-10' and you'd see these BIG brown eyes looking back at you trying to figure out what the hell we were. They're so agile underwater, it was a real blast to watch them. Some of the young ones seemed totally unaware that were were near them. They'd be playing on the bottom as we'd swim by only 15'-20' away.
It was all over too soon. Two dives wasn't quite enough, but we certainly have a head full of memories.
If you've never dove/dived (?) Pam Rocks, you should. If you don't have a boat, give the Sea Dragon or other local charter a call and tell them you want to dive with the seals at Pam Rocks. You won't be disappointed.
I don't know if the vis miraculously cleared this past week everywhere, but if you're afraid of heights, you wouldn't have enjoyed the diving this weekend near Porteau and Pam Rocks/Anvil Island area...it was phenomenal.
Four of us piled into my boat, launched at Porteau and headed to Pam Rocks for the first time. We really didn't know what to expect. Our arrival was greeted by a couple dozen seals sunning themselves on the rocks and frolicking in the water.
Initially, since this was our first boat dive and no one was left to look after the boat, the intention was to somehow tie it up to the rocks and then essentially do a shore dive. Once we got out there, there was a decent amount of boat traffic including commercial crab boats, so I wasn't concerned about leaving it.
On our first dive, we anchored to the north east "inside" the rocks (they're sort of arranged in a half-moon shape) in 40' of water and descended down the anchor line. The first 10' were not bad - there was a considerable thermocline as the top layer was quite warm, but once we dropped below that, it was friggin' unreal...I swear we were in the topics. Each of us literally blinked several times and kinda shook our heads in disbelief at how clear it was. By the time we hit the bottom at 40', were throwin' shakas, nodding and swearing into our regs at how beautiful and clear it was.
We headed north to the inside of the base of the first few rocks. The bottom was littered with life. For those of you that have yet to see a nudibranch, you gotta go to Pam Rocks...I've never seen such a concentration of nudis, especially the Gold Dirona, as I saw yesterday. To top it all off...I spotted what I believe was a Giant Dendronotid (Giant Nudibranch). We took some video of it and once I receive it from my buddy, I'll post it. I held my hand up to it for scale and it appeared to be about 2 times the length of my hand. From what I've read, they can reach 10", but this one seemed longer. An incredible specimen. And par for this dive, 15' later, there was a second one (no, the first one wasn't fast enough to get ahead of me).
We saw the usual suspects; stars, crabs, massive anemones, swimming scallops, sea peaches and squirts, huge purple urchins, etc., etc., etc. But everything seemed larger here and with the clear water, certainly much more colourful and brighter. I believe a considerable amount of water flows through this area, which I suspect, accounts for the abundance of sea life, but whatever the reason, it was very cool.
After the first dive, we got back into the boat, raced back to Porteau to swap tanks and get our lunches and raced back our for a second dive.
This time we started at the north end by the smallest rock and attempted to do a 360 around all the rocks. We snorkeled close to the little rock where the seals were basking and dropped down to the bottom at about 15'. We made our way around clockwise. On the east side of the small rock, there's a fantastic shelf formation that drops down from 20' to 60' in steps. you can swim around the north end of the rock at one depth, drop down to another depth and swim back the opposite direction and do this a couple times before hitting the sandy bottom at about 60'. Again, clear vis for at least 40'.
I chased a few crabs as I had my tidal license with me and a game bag, but as luck would have it, they were all under sized. We made our way around the west side of the rocks and almost the whole time, we could see the seals off in the distance...far enough away to be safe from us, but close enough to check us out. The odd time, the young white ones would come quite close, say 8-10' and you'd see these BIG brown eyes looking back at you trying to figure out what the hell we were. They're so agile underwater, it was a real blast to watch them. Some of the young ones seemed totally unaware that were were near them. They'd be playing on the bottom as we'd swim by only 15'-20' away.
It was all over too soon. Two dives wasn't quite enough, but we certainly have a head full of memories.
If you've never dove/dived (?) Pam Rocks, you should. If you don't have a boat, give the Sea Dragon or other local charter a call and tell them you want to dive with the seals at Pam Rocks. You won't be disappointed.
