Since I found that the good part of this dive site was actually the reef at Cottam Point, I haven't thought of diving here in awhile. Recently, I've heard from a local diver that there is actually a long series of walls at various depths down past 150 feet fairly close to the shore off the park. Looking at the chart, I realised that my previous navigation has been off. There are 2 small coves in this area with a flat, rocky "point" in between. I've entered at the one closest to Cottam Point, thinking that it was the other one shown on the chart. So I've been swimming in the wrong direction. This time (Oct. 9, 2010), I entered the water off the rocky point and swam towards the other side of North-West Bay. In the shallows, the flat sandstone was covered with rockweed and schools of small perch. There was a sparse patch of bull kelp and then the rock dropped down in a wall between 20 and 40 feet deep. Visibility was about 50 feet. This wall had some overhangs that were covered with tube worms. Some areas were swarming with piles of green urchins. At the base of this wall there was a slope of sandstone slabs and rubble that ended about 70- feet deep. This area seemed a bit brown and silty, but there were groups of copper and quillback rockfish and the occasional tiger rockfish. I looked around for wolfeels, but I didn't see any. Below 70 feet deep there was a sandy slope with tube-dwelling anemones, nudibranchs, sea pens, crimson anemones and some small, branching sponges. I went down to about 100 feet, but I didn't see any rocky areas down here. Maybe if I swam a bit to the right or left I would have seen the beginning of a wall. I saw some seals and sealions on the surface, but I didn't see any underwater.
