I usually come to the Breakwater almost as a last resort, when I don't have time to go anywhere else. Ironically, I end up having some seriously excellent dives here. Today's dive (Oct. 3, 2009) was probably the most beautiful  I've had here. Visibility was about 50 feet at the end of the breakwater. That's about as good as it gets here. It was sunny and bright and I could swim out over the sand 85 feet deep, look back and see the entire plumose-covered slope swarming with schools of thousands of rockfish. I didn't see the orange "mystery" rockfish I saw last time here (boccacio? Silver grey?), but I did see another group of rockfish that I've never seen before. I think they might have been widow rockfish. It seems like every time I've been diving here lately, I find a new-to-me species of rockfish. The breakwater is definitely the best site in the Victoria area for variety and abundance of fish. I also saw a ratfish again. Another group of divers nearby saw a sealion swoop past them underwater, but it avoided me since I had a camera.
kelp panorama
rockfish panorama 30 feet deep
black rockfish
black rockfish
black rockfish
black rockfish 40  feet deep
black rockfish
black rockfish 50 feet deep
looking down slope of plumose anemones and Puget Sound rockfish
lingcod and plumose anemones
lingcod
Puget Sound Rockfish
Puget Sound rockfish
Puget Sound rockfish
Plumose anemones and school of rockfish
fish-eating and plumose anemones
fish-eating and plumose anemones
next to slope of anemones
strange rockfish
school of mixed rockfish
strange rockfish
strange rockfish
smoke marker
yelloweye rockfish
canary rockfish
canary rockfish and anemone
canary rockfish 75 feet deep
canary rockfish
Puget Sound rockfish
vermilion rockfish
vermilion rockfish
vermilion rockfish at base of slope
copper rockfish
ratfish
ratfish
fish-eating anemone
anemone
lingcod
Puget Sound rockfish and plumose anemones
anemones
quillback rockfish
over boulder slope
vermilion rockfish and anemone
rockfish and anemone
copper and vermilion rockfish
anemones and rockfish
fish-eating anemone
boulders
anemones
fish-eating anemone
anemones
tiger rockfish
lingcod
seastars in shallows
sponge, tunicates, etc. in shallows
in kelp
in kelp
black rockfish in kelp
black rockfish under kelp
stuff on rock in shallows