Deacon Lane is the name of a private gravel road branching off from Porlier Pass Road at the North end of Galiano Island. At the intersection of these roads the zoning map shows a public right-of-way to the water. Online, there are references to this right-of-way as "Valerie's Place" or "Valerie's Place Park". There are no signs calling it this so I'll name this dive spot after Deacon Lane since there is a sign, which makes it easier to find. I came here on Jan. 2, 2022. This beach access is the closest one to Porlier Pass at the North tip of the island. The marine chart shows a steep drop to around 150' deep.
There was a small parking area for maybe 2 cars at the start of the trail. The trail was pretty long and steep. There were steps made from stones and handrails in places. This is the kind of trail that makes me think twice about using it for diving, but since I was here, I decided to go ahead.
Visibility was a disappointing 10'. I'm guessing it was from all the heavy rain in the Fall still flowing out of the Fraser River. The bottom dropped down almost immediately in a steep wall with a couple of small boulder-covered ledges. I went down to 100' deep and the bottom kept dropping away. It was spooky to be down there in the dark with blackness behind me and below me and only able to see a bit of the wall at a time. Most of the marine life was of the small variety. There were cemented tube worm clusters, lots of cup corals and some feather stars. There weren't many anemones, just a few plumose in the shallower depths. I noticed before that the closer you get to Porlier Pass along this coastline of Galiano, there seems to be less marine life. I hardly saw any fish, just 2 copper rockfish and 2 yellowtail rockfish (other than small sculpins and gobies).
There used to be a small kind of soft coral that I've only ever seen along this side of Galiano Island in Trincomali Channel. It wasn't covering the rocks or anything, but I used to see it here and there below 50-60' deep. The last time I saw them was in 2014. After that, small white barnacles took over the walls (just like in many places around B.C.) and all the soft corals here seemed to disappear. Today, I spent some time hunting around for them with my flashlight around 80-100' deep, but I didn't see any. Later, I looked at all my photos up close trying to see any that I might have missed during the dive. I was happy to finally find 2 closed-up ones in one of the photos. In the 3 photos below, I progressively cropped them further to show the small, pale orange soft coral. So even though they are mostly gone in this area, there are at least a few left.
Considering the steep trail, I don't think this spot is worth coming back to. There are other spots farther South along the Galiano shoreline with more life and easier access.
By the way, according to a nearby sign this dive site is on the 49th Parallel, which is the border between Canada and the US (except where it dips farther South around the Gulf Islands and the Southern tip of Vancouver Island).
