Vancouver Island: A Diver's Paradise
Ever since the Jacques Cousteau Society rated Vancouver Island’s waters second only to the Red Sea for clarity and diversity of marine life, divers from around the world are discovering what local divers have known for years: Vancouver Island is a paradise of outstanding diving experiences.
Sea caves, cliffs and walls, natural and artificial reefs, an assortment of shipwrecks, stunning rock formations, and so much more. The diversity of marine life is outstanding. Giant kelp beds, walls draped in brightly coloured anemone, pink and white soft coral, bunches of finger sponge, lavender coralline algae, white sea cucumber, and glassy sea squirts — Vancouver Island’s underwater gardens are spectacular. And the residents that inhabit these gardens are sure to thrill: six-gill sharks, giant octopus, massive lingcod, rock fish, wolf eels, star fish, sea urchins, and an amazing assortment of crustaceans. You can even swim with Pacific white-sided dolphins, seals, and salmon.
When it comes to choosing your dive sites, you have an exciting task ahead of you. There are literally hundreds of dive sites in the Vancouver Island region.
Shore dives, boat dives, artificial reefs, tours, lessons, all-inclusive “liveaboard” vacations — a wide variety of options are available for your perfect diving holiday. Just click on the links above for businesses that can provide you with everything you need to dive Vancouver Island.
Wondering when to visit? While diving is excellent year-round in the Vancouver Island region, visibility increases during the winter months and from region to region, averaging 40 feet in the south and 70 feet in the north. Sporadic green and brown algae blooms may affect visibility in the spring and summer months; these blooms last only a few days and divers can descend below them (20 to 40 feet). Water temperatures also vary slightly from one end of the island to the other and according to the season (6°C to 13°C in the winter and 10°C to 16°C in the summer), making it necessary for full-body exposure protection. Six to seven millimetre wet suits or dry suits are sufficient and allow the diver to do repetitive dives within a single day.
Once you’ve experienced Vancouver Island diving, you’ll understand why the readers of Rodale’s Scuba Diving magazine have been putting Vancouver Island at the top of the Readers’ Choice lists consistently since 2002. For more information on the Vancouver Island region, visit www.vancouverisland.travel.