Recent Hood Canal Reports?

[eponym]

Hey, Pugetropolans (Pugetropoli? Pugetropolites?)

I've been invited up to Hood Canal next weekend. We'll be out with PacAdventure and making some shore dives. Anyone been in lately and care to share your impressions of conditions? Gotta be better than where I'm diving this weekend (Lost Creek Lake, 42 F and 8 feet viz with navigation students).

Thanks!
Bryan

 

[-Aaron-]

I dove up in Hood Canal (Sund Rock, Octopus Hole) February 27 and 28th and conditions were excellent. Visibility was 25-30 feet on Friday and Saturday. Water surface temps were in the mid to low 40s, but it was high overcast and we had no rain until I was leaving late on Saturday. One note, on the last dive I did on Saturday night, visibility murked up quite a bit and was down to 10-15 feet.

If you want a more up to the minute report you might give them a call at Hood Sport'n Dive (360) 877-6818. Also, I think Salem Scuba had an OW class up there last weekend, so you could call them and see what conditions were like (503) 588-DIVE

 

[PacificNWdiver]

I dove at Sund Rock 3/7/09. Water temp was 48 degrees. Visibility probably 15 to 20 ft. We got there late in the afternoon so the visiblity may have been better a little earlier. Overall, I think if the weather doesn't get nasty you should have a good weekend.

 

[Scuba-Stu]

Pulali Point and Pinnacle, 15+ Vis., 44 degrees.

 

[MT_Shadow]

I dove near Hood Sport last weekend and the vis was 30 feet water 45 degrees. The water can be a little murky above 30 fsw when the tide is changing but we did find alot of Octopus! One had a head the size of an exercise ball. Let me know if you find a Tusa Fin! My dad lost a red and black one. We dove near Mikes beach resort and stayed there for 30 bucks a night with 3 tank fills. The oysters were also great!

 

[eponym]

No Tusa fin found, sorry MT. We did however see a lotta ock. One at Mike's and six or seven in two Sunday dives off Down Time at Rosie's Ravine and Black Point. Viz was about twelve feet, temps mid to low 40s, no noticeable current, snow falling hard, a little grease ice on the water, very picturesque. Would go back in a heartbeat.

-Bryan

 

[nwmouse]

Hi all, I'm doing my very first open water dive at Hood Canal through the local dive center in Vancouver WA. I'm going in June. The instructor I spoke to said Jacques Costeau named this area as one of the 2nd best dives due to the pristine nature of the marine life. I'm a little nervous and don't know what to expect - is it mostly kelp and octopus? I'm very new to this, so my apologies for being ignorant.

 

[TSandM]

There isn't a lot of kelp in Hood Canal. The shore diving sites tend to be silty, and lot of the life is small (although no less fun for that!) I have heard people recently say that Octopus Hole has octopuses again, though. Visibility in June is likely to be limited, as this is the time of year for algae blooms (I got certified at the end of June in 2005, and we couldn't see very far.)

Your OW certification dives are mostly spent confirming that you can execute the skills your class taught you in an open water setting, but you do get to do a little touring. You'll see a number of species of colorful starfish, various crabs, little cute guys called squat lobsters, a variety of rockfish, probably some ling cod, as well as other things. One of the fun things about Puget Sound is the density of life we get to enjoy seeing!

 

[nwscubamom]

Hi all, I'm doing my very first open water dive at Hood Canal through the local dive center in Vancouver WA. I'm going in June. The instructor I spoke to said Jacques Costeau named this area as one of the 2nd best dives due to the pristine nature of the marine life. I'm a little nervous and don't know what to expect - is it mostly kelp and octopus? I'm very new to this, so my apologies for being ignorant.

No worries - the area your instructor will take you to will be non-kelpy (as far as the long strands of bull kelp go) and IF you see an octopus, you'll be lucky!! It's pretty rare for an OW student to find one. As TSandM said, your first dives will be spent doing skills, and you don't have much time to tour around and actually look at stuff.

Also, I don't think Hood Canal is the area Jacques Cousteau was referring to specifically - and to be honest, I've never actually seen the quote - it drifts around the PNW dive community in various forms. I suspect it's probably something along the lines of: Pacific diving is among the best in the world for color and diversity of marine life. And that would be referring to WA, OR, BC and maybe N. California.

Regardless, while Hood Canal remains one of my favorite dive sites - you won't begin to find all the color and diversity of life there as you might find up in BC diving off Vancouver Island, for instance. It has a silty bottom habitat in many places because of the runoff from the inflowing rivers, and not a lot of current (which is great for OW students!) to wash the silt away.

Hope this helps you know a bit more what to expect!

- Janna

 

[nwmouse]

Thank you TSandM and nwscubamom! I'm going to hope for the best - this is my first attempt before I try the tropical waters later in the year, and I'm going to kep an open mind and hopefully get my certification so I can try warmer waters and tropical coral reefs later on. Brrrrr!