Vancouver July 17 and 20, 2011
Porteau Cove - July 20
Did two more dives on wed in the morning with Mark Leichnitz of Vancouver Scuba Diving School
We again started at 8 am to catch the 9:30 high tide. We went to Porteau Cove Provincial Park which is another 20 minutes past where we went on Sunday. Porteau Cove, other than being at the end of a gorgeous drive, is as different from Whytecliff park as it could me. This is the site of an old ferry terminal. There is a large parking lot ending in some docks and a large boat ramp sticking out into the water. There are picnic tables, a campground, and restrooms. It is a very level short walk to the water. On the right side of the terminal is a cove. It is a marine sanctuary so no fishing or boating is allowed. A series of white buoys mark the cove off. See the first picture. Local divers have built a nice set of concrete steps leading down into the water and some stuff has been placed out near the buoys including a 100 ft tug, a large sailboat, some piles of steel girders, tires, etc. etc. in 40-50 ft of water. So there is a large area with structure. There was a much greater variety of creatures of all kinds and a lot more fish on this site. The dive plan each time was to wade in on the gravel bottom and put on fins, then slowly swim out to the buoys, descend, explore, and then swim our way back.
This time there was a seal checking out the dive site before we started.
Both dives were over 40 minutes. Water temp was 49 again. There was a very definite layer in the top 20 ft of water. Looking up it looked like a cloud bank. Maybe 5 ft of viz in the top 20 ft and then it popped out to around 20 ft or so of viz as soon as you got below 20 ft. In spite of the 8 foot tides there was little current. Two fun dives that each had their own feel. First dive we checked out the wrecks and admired the big stuff. Second dive we looked in nooks and crannies for the many creatures. Not everything we saw is pictured below. For instance we saw a couple kinds of crabs that blended so well that while we could clearly see them they are almost invisible in a photo. We could easily see around the wreck and girders but too much particulate to take that type of picture.
The cove
First big difference was that there were a lot of fish and some of them were very big. Lingcod and greenlings were laying all over the place. Saw a couple lingcod that went four feet. Many in the three foot range.
There were a lot of these big red sea cucumbers. Some were close to 3 feet.
And, of course, there were all sorts of starfish. Pictures below are of new ones.
There was a greater variety of anemones. If it was a piece of metal and had an edge it was covered with anemones. Overhangs like the stern and bow had a lot of growth on the underside.
Saw several types of crabs
On the second dive we were visited by three lions mane jelly fish. These are pretty big and have long stinging tentacles that stretch quite a ways. We dropped down and watched them drift overhead. Impressive creatures. In natural light they look large and dark and fairly solid.
Once Mark pointed one out to me we located several of these nudibranchs that looked like a plant. It is the magenta and white one in the picture below
There were also shrimp. There are at least 5 in the next picture. Look for the arc of white spots that marks where their legs join their bodies.
