This is a small island off the Northern tip of the Saanich Peninsula near the Swartz Bay ferry terminal. I've only been diving here once before probably close to 20 years ago. I came back on Feb. 13, 2022 as a second dive of the day on the SEA Dive charter boat.
We started at the South-West corner of the island. This is the location of a small "cavern" at the base of the wall. It's more like a vertical crack that leads to a low-ceiling crevice where you can look through and see out to the other side, but it's too small to swim through. I remember when I dove here last time, the vertical crack was covered with big plumose anemones, making it seem more like a white cavern as you swam into it. Today, the plumose anemones were mostly gone, making it seem much more bare. Visibility was maybe 20'.
After leaving the "cavern" we swam down along the West side of the island. This area was a slope of boulders and sand that went down to about 60' deep. Most of the rocks were covered with cemented tube worms. Looking up close there were also cup corals, nudibranchs, sharpnose and decorator crabs and giant barnacles. I didn't notice many fish, just a couple of copper rockfish and a small lingcod.
I had a quick look around the North side of the Island. The topography here was more of a solid rocky structure than the sand/boulder slope on the West side. The rock met the sand at 70-80' deep. There didn't seem to be any more marine life here than on the West side.
I swam back along the West side of the island, but a bit shallower up the slope at the base of the wall that drops down from the shallows.
I guess this dive spot is decent enough (especially when you look up close at the variety of small marine life covering the rocks), but I'm not sure that it's dive charter worthy. In my opinion, nearby Shute Reef is a much better dive with much more marine life.
