This is the point sticking out into Skidegate Inlet from Moresby Island next to the Alliford Bay ferry terminal. From the ferry terminal, it's about a 2 minute drive to a small bay where I swam out on the surface to the left-hand point on April 22, 2012. This was about a 350-meter swim which is longer than I usually tolerate, but it was calm and there was no current. I had forgotten my snorkel so I had to swim out on my back, which wasn't as interesting, but I rolled over now and then and could see the eelgrass on the bottom for the entire way out. When I reached the point I descended and swam down a stepping rock drop-off that met the sand at about 70 feet deep. The rocks were covered with the Skidegate Inlet trade-marked brown cup corals and burrowing cucumbers. I also saw lots of hermit crabs with sponge-covered shells. Some of them had nudibranchs riding on top eating the sponge. Visibility was over 40 feet, which was the best so far during my visit. I swam down from the base of the wall and there were large boulders and more reefs scattered down the slope. I went down to about 100 feet deep, but I didn't see anything different from the life on the main wall, so I went back up a bit shallower to save air. I didn't see any fish at all down here which, even after my previous fish-free dives in the area, seemed bizarre. There weren't even any of the small sculpins or gobies that you usually see if you look up close. Despite the lack of fish, this was a great dive. The good visibility and the cup coral-smothered rocks made me wish I had more air to explore further around the point. I went back up to the top of the wall (20-30 feet deep), where there was a small Macrocystis (giant kelp) forest. The rocks up here were covered with tube worms. I swam back into the bay and actually saw a few fish. I saw a foot-long sculpin that I didn't recognise. It almost looked like a great sculpin, but somehow it seemed different than the ones I see around Victoria. I also saw a tiny sculpin, 2 juvenile copper rockfish, a school of juvenile rockfish that I didn't recognise and a small school of sandlance near the beach. This was the last dive I did during my visit to the islands and it was my favorite, despite the inconsiderate lack of sealions. Maybe it was the good visibility, but I'll also remember the dropoff covered with cup corals topped off with that giant kelp forest ledge. These dives I've done during this week seem so different from anything I've seen around Vancouver Island.
