beddisbeach

I had time for one dive on Saltspring Island (Jan. 1, 2020) so I chose Beddis Beach. The marine chart shows a drop to a bit over 100' deep. It's listed in Betty Pratt-Johnson's local diving guide books. I don't really see Saltspring as a shore diving destination compared to many of the other Gulf Islands. The only decent shore dive here in my opinion is Beaver Point (in Ruckle Park), but it's very current-sensitive and I was diving today at a random time on a day that wasn't great for current. I assumed Beddis Beach had some current, but not enough to worry about it too much.

I parked near the end of Beddis Rd. where there is a short trail to the beach. At the north end of the beach (to the left when looking out from shore) there is a small rocky point. The dive is off this point.

I snorkeled most of the way to the point and descended just before it. I continued swimming underwater towards the point. The bottom off the beach was sand/pebbles with eelgrass.

I reached the rocky area around the point. It was a gradual slope of small ledges and boulders going town to about 50-60' deep at high tide. Visibility was 10-15'. The most common marine life was large red urchins. There were also some clumps of cemented tube worms, giant barnacles, and 2 or 3 orange plumose anemones. Overall, there seemed to be a disappointing lack of marine life. There were almost no fish, except for gobies, small sculpins and 2 small copper rockfish. The current was fairly strong (maybe 1 knot), but not so strong that I couldn't swim against it.

I swam down from the base of the rocky area to see if there were more rocky areas down deeper. I followed the sand slope down to about 90' deep, but it was all just sand. The only marine life I saw down there was some kind of large sculpin (great sculpin?).

I think this dive would be ok if you lived on Saltspring Island or if you were visiting and wanted a quick, easy-access dive, but I don't think there is enough marine life to make it worth catching a ferry just to dive here.