I've already tried diving the "point" of Otter Point and the East side of it. Today (Sept. 27, 2015) I tried the West side of the point. There's a public right-of-way trail to the water from West Coast Road between houses #8589 and 8601. It's a very short trail that ends on a long pebble beach in Orveas Bay. At the end of the trail on the beach when you're facing the water there's a steep, rocky headland on your left about 100 meters away. The chart shows a slope at this small point that drops pretty steeply to about 40' deep. I was hoping that this slope might have some exposed solid rock reefs. So far, the Otter Point areas where I've been diving have been mostly a slope of sand and pebbles. I chose a calm day for this dive (according to the wind forecasts) since this beach is exposed and it would be difficult to get in the water if there was a swell.
parking next to the trail
trail
trail
the beach at Orveas Bay
the steep headland
The rocks on shore ended just below the surface and then there was an area of pebbles and sand stretching out into the Strait.
Between 15-30' deep there was a covering of stalked kelp growing on small rocks. Visibility was around 30'. A few Steller's sealions swept in and swirled around me. They usually do a turn around me and then continue on to wherever they were going, but this time they stayed for around 10 minutes. They kept insisting that I take more photos of them and they begged that I would put as many of the pictures as possible on the internet. I felt kind of bad for them so I promised I would.
bryozoan
When the sealions finally left I looked under the kelp to see what else was growing on the rocks. They looked mostly grey and silty, but there were a few fish-eating anemones, urchins and yellow staghorn bryozoans.
Below 40-50' deep, I was surprised to see a fuzzy carpet of feather duster worms and smaller yellow/red tube worms covering the bottom as far as I could see in places. So far I've never seen anything like it. It was difficult to take photos of them since they would all retract at once as I swam within a few feet. There were also moonsnails, crimson and sand anemones and tiny baby sea pens.
baby sea pens
sand anemone
tiny anemone?
moon snail
moon snail
tube worms
tube worms
sand anemone
feather duster worms
tube worms
tube worms
tube worms
sand anemone
tube worms
tube worms
crimson anemone
crimson anemone and a moon snail in the current
        The fields of tubeworms ended at around 60-70' deep and then there was a slope of sand with a few crimson anemones. My maximum depth was 80', but the bottom continued to slope down deeper. As I was swimming along, the current suddenly started flowing strongly. I hadn't bothered to time this dive with any current table and for the first part of the dive I didn't feel any. I later checked and found that I started the dive on the Race Passage table's slack. The current was now flooding and it was getting almost too strong to swim against. A small rock with a clump of fish-eating anemones gave a hint of what this site would be like with more rocky structure. I tried to take a few self-portraits with the anemones, just to have a diver in the picture, but the current kept blowing over the tripod, stirring up the bottom as I tried to hold the camera in position as the timer counted down. I struggled back up the slope past the fields of tube worms. There was an area with small boulders and a couple of plumose anemones. I saw an octopus den, a sailfin sculpin and a tiny ruby octopus out in the open. I survived the current and made it back up to shore. I'm definitely planning on coming back for the tubeworm meadows and the potential for a colourful rocky reef somewhere out there.
nudibranch
nudibranch
hermit crab in a sponge-covered shell
anemones
baby fish-eating anemone
small boulders and an octopus den
octopus den
anemone and tube worms
moon snail and tube worms
moon snail
small octopus
small octopus
small octopus
octopus
octopus
octopus
octopus
sailfin sculpin
sailfin sculpin
sailfin sculpin
nudibranch
hermit crab
sculpin
school of perch in the stalked kelp
moon jelly
sand near shore
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