In the few dives I've done here at Arbutus Point over the years, I've never been very impressed. The marine chart shows 3 knots of current here, but I've never felt much and there isn't really any current-type marine life. Last time I dove here I didn't plan on coming back, but today (Dec. 29, 2016), I thought I'd try swimming out to the right around the point towards Maple Bay. I've always swam left (North) on previous dives. The sidescan image showed a less-steep rocky area sticking out from the point. This area was probably too deep to dive, but I was curious to see what it was like in diveable depths.
Visibility was the best I've seen in the Maple Bay area. It was 40-50', even near the surface. I swam down and out to the right.
Out in this direction there was a lot less rock and a lot more sand than I was expecting. I followed this slope down to around 80' deep and I couldn't see any large rocky areas.
I gave up trying to find a steep rocky area in this direction. I didn't want to spend the whole dive swimming over sand so I turned around and swam North to the area where I usually dive. My maximum depth here was about 100'. With the good visibility I could have a good look at the topography around me. There were more sandy areas than I remember and the rock slope seemed less steep. For some reason I remembered a dark wall, but it was actually a series of steps, ledges and sloping reefs. Below 60' deep there were lots of feather stars, but I didn't see any anemones except for tube-dwelling and an orange plumose on the sand. I only saw 2 or 3 skinny-looking copper rockfish. Maybe the lack of fish here has to do with the lack of shrimp. I didn't see any shrimp at all which was surprising. Many of the rock surfaces below 60' deep were covered with small white barnacles.
I don't think I'll come back here for awhile. It is a decent enough dive for people who live in the area, but there isn't enough marine life to make me want to drive up from Victoria and brave the steep path again. I think the best feature of this site is the large area to explore and you can easily go as deep as you want. It's possible to get almost 1000' deep within a reasonable swim from shore.
