Over the years when I've been diving here at the public shore access at the end of Dragon's Lane on Gabriola Island, I've always swam out to the right. Today (Aug. 5, 2023), I swam out to the left side of the small entry-point bay.
Visibility in the shallow bay was terrible from some small waves stirring up the bottom. I swam out on the surface towards the point on my left (West). Out here, visibility was about 15'. There was a small wall dropping down maybe 20' deep. It had some orange and pale yellow tunicate colonies on it.
I followed the slope down. It was made up of boulders similar to the slope on the right side of the bay. There was a thermocline at 25' deep, but the visibility only gradually improved.
I saw an adult male wolfeel peeking out of its den. I forget the exact depth, but it was probably around 70-80' deep.
Below 80' deep, visibility was 40-50'. The most common fish were small quillback rockfish (probably less than 10 years old). The boulders ended in the sand about 100' deep. As I swam west along the base of this rocky slope, it became deeper, eventually reaching about 120' deep. The amount of feather stars increased as well as I swam West. I didn't see any boot sponges. Over the years, when I dove around the right side of the bay, I saw several boot sponges near the base of that boulder slope. During my last dive there earlier this year, they all seemed to be gone. Maybe there used to be boot sponges here on the left side as well that have now died off for some reason.
I swam back up the boulder slope towards the entry-point bay.
Back at the shallow wall that drops down near the point:
This was an interesting dive, but I think I like the area out to the right slightly better. The tall boulder covered with crimson anemones, that to me is the signature of the Dragon's Lane dive site gives that side of the bay the edge in my opinion.
