Pacific Marine Imaging: West Coast Shootout # 8 - The Barkley Sound Adventure Part 2

Day Two: The Awesome Encounter

We awoke on the second day to a beautiful sunny morning: blue skies and no wind. This would be a perfect day to explore Barkley Sound.

Images courtesy of Kelli Meredith

Our first dive was at Tyler Rock. This pinnacle at the intersection of the Alberni Inlet and Trevor channel is one of the places where you can see six gill sharks, or so we where told. The top of the pinnacle sits in about 45 ft. (14 m.) of water. One interesting note about diving in this area is that there is no way to judge the currents. When diving at a place like Race Rocks or Browning Wall you depend on the current markers to tell you when slack tide is and what direction the water is flowing; Barkley Sound however is quite different. The sound is only affected by the open ocean currents, which at its highest point only runs at about 1 knot (we dove 5 different sites over two days at different time and experienced no current whatsoever at any of the spots, the only time we felt any was at Tyler Rock on the surface). This pinnacle has a distinct point and then drops down quite sharply to a depth of about 150 ft. (50 m.) on all sides. The bottom slopes further beyond this point to depths reaching 300 ft. (100 m.) This site is suitable for just about anyone: there is enough life here to keep underwater photographers happy for hours and the depth and topography is perfect for tech and recreational divers as well. Tyler Rock was home to numerous species of rockfish and greenlings, however this place was infested with Spotted Ratfish! For those of us in the group that had never seen one, it was an exhilarating experience. These strange little creatures seemed were curious about us, and many of them swam right to us. One of the most interesting attributes of ratfish is the way they swim: they flap their fins as they glide through the water almost resembling a bird rather than a fish.

The second dive of the day was at a small group of islands known as Baeria Rocks, which are an ecological reserve. Above water these little islands are a sea bird nesting area and below the water, home to an extensive range of marine life. We decided to dive off the north end of the largest island; having no idea what we where about to encounter was very exciting for all of us. We hoped for an encounter with a six gill however what we found was just plain AWESOME! We entered the water to find very poor visibility in the top 20 ft. (7 m.) but once we descended below that it opened right up to almost 40 ft. (12 m.) The walls and rocks that made up the island were covered in invertebrate life: anemones, hydroids, and hydrocorals covered the majority of the substrate, and huge purple sea urchins dotted the rocks. Just after entering the water we spotted a Giant Pacific Octopus huddled behind a rock staring at us. Having an opportunity as a diver to interact with one of these magnificent creatures is truly a memorable experience. For almost the entire dive, this octopus was the star of the show, crawling across the bottom, changing colour, and every once in a while reaching out to feel what we were. Once the octopus had jetted off into the depths we returned our attention the surrounding area to check out more of what this dive site had to. This is a site that needs to be explored more. The topography and depths are fascinating and the diversity of the marine life is worth multiple dives.

Our last dive of the day we returned to Tyler Rock, the theory was that if we went back later in the day we might catch a glimpse of the elusive six gill. Unfortunately luck was not on our side, more ratfish and rockfish and a great encounter with a beautiful wolf eel but no six gill. The great thing about the trip was that our spirits where high from all the creatures we had seen but our hope of encountering a six gill shark the next day was not fading like the sun. We headed back to camp for some much needed food and libation. Tomorrow would bring a truly great surprise and even more photographic opportunities.

Tyler Rock Underwater Images