boldbluffpoint

This is a steep point sticking out into the narrowest part of Sansum Narrows on the Saltspring Island side. The marine chart shows a drop to over 200' deep. I drove up to Maple Bay and launched my boat at the public ramp on Feb. 19, 2020.

I anchored in a tiny cut in the cliffs on the South side of the point. The whole time I was getting my gear together, 2 large sealions were snorting and playing and watching me from the water about 15' away. They had been hanging around for about 15 minutes and I was a bit apprehensive at the thought of spending my dive being harassed by them down in the dark murky depths. As it turned out, I didn't see them at all during my dive. I descended down through the shallows. Visibility here was only 10', which was less than expected. Despite the lack of rain over the last few days, the nearby Cowichan River was almost overflowing its banks from the near-record rain over the last month or so. I think this inflow of fresh water reduced the visibility in Sansum Narrows. In the shallows, the most common species was large red urchins.

As I went deeper, there were lots of cup corals and clumps of cemented tube worms. The cemented tube worms were probably the most common species. They covered most of the rock surfaces. There were a few grunt sculpins living around the "balls" of cemented tube worms. Below 30' deep, visibility improved a bit to about 15'.

So far, there weren't many anemones, just a few painted anemones. At about 90' deep, I started to see lots of plumose anemones. My maximum depth was about 110' deep. Down here, the walls, valleys and boulders were covered with them. I hardly saw any fish on this dive. Except for small sculpins and gobies, I only saw 2 kelp greenlings, a small school of perch and a copper rockfish. I was diving in the middle of a 1-knot flood according to the current table and I felt a bit of a flow.