I've done quite a few dives on the North side of Albert Head, but I've always wondered what it's like on the South side of the point where the chart shows a fairly steep slope to over 100 feet. I took my canoe here in early June, 2007. I dragged it to the water at the beach/parking area at Albert Head Lagoon. From there it was a short trip around the point to a small, rocky beach surrounded by conglomerate cliffs. The place I decided to try diving was the small island that's so close to shore that it looks almost connected. I swam out through a bull kelp forest towards the tip of the island. Visibility was around 25 feet. The rocky sides of the island dropped steeply to around 10-30 feet deep. Most of these rocks were bare and silty. I didn't see any anemones on the walls. Some of the overhangs had patches of small stuff like zoanthids, orange colonial tunicates and red burrowing cucumbers, but I was kind of disappointed with the overall lack of colour. this wall met a sandy bottom at around 30 feet deep out at the tip of the island. I swam out farther and there was a maze of large kelp-topped rocky reefs that had the same sheer-wall sides. Here there was much more life. There were shallow cavern-like overhangs filled with plumose anemones and a coating of "tiny stuff" like encrusting sponge, cup corals, etc. There were piles of big purple urchins, groups of large copper rockfish and smaller quillback rockfish in the cracks. I saw a few cabezon on the flat, pebble bottom between the reefs. I swam out farther over a sandy area and suddenly the bottom dropped away in a series of walls and shelves. These walls were covered with strange small, yellow finger-type sponges. There were also several large crimson anemones, a few fish-eating anemones and huge groups of plumose anemones. Up close, I could see cup corals, white mats of tiny hydroids, small branching hydrocorals, nudibranchs, etc... Large copper and quillback rockfish were everywhere. I saw a large school of yellowtail and black rockfish hovering over a huge boulder perched on a ledge. My maximum depth was 95 feet, but the steep area continued to go deeper. I was hoping to see some pink soft coral, large finger sponges or basket stars (like at Race Rocks), but I didn't notice any. I still think this wall is one of the best local dives I've done yet. Eventually I swam back to shore and strapped on a second tank. By the time I surface-swam out to the tip of the island, the current had picked up and the visibility was down to around 15 feet. I struggled out over the reefs to the drop-off, but by the time I reached it, the current was too strong to think about hanging around for long so I returned after another quick look around. I saw another big school of rockfish and an old fishing net twisted down the wall. I think the dive is definitely worth it, but since it's difficult to pull off a current-sensitive dive when there's a long swim to get there, I don't know if I'll do the canoe/shore dive thing here again.
