I came here for a second dive after diving Swordfish Island (June 29, 2009). It's near the Eastern point of Becher Bay. I chose it because the chart showed a steep drop to deeper-than-kelp depths and there's a sheltered bay nearby that's perfect for anchoring. The land on the shore is private property (Becher Bay Band reserve) so I didn't go ashore, but anchored in the shallows and put on my stuff in the water. I swam out (less than 100 meters) to the "head" and descended through the bull kelp. Visibility was about 30-40 feet and I didn't notice much current. Below the kelp there was a rocky reef covered with coralline algae and urchins. I followed this reef and it went deeper, turning into a wall. This wall ended in a sandy bottom at about 70-90 feet deep. There wasn't a lot of colourful stuff on the wall. It seemed mostly bare. There was the occasional plumose anemone, patch of sponge, giant barnacle, sea star, etc. To make up for the lack of invertebrates, there was a big group of canary rockfish at the base of the wall. They weren't shy at all, but seemed to want to follow me around. There were also a few of the usual other kinds of rockfish as well (copper, quillback). I even saw a few juvenile vermilion rockfish. I would have liked to follow the wall out farther, but I only had so much air so I went back up to the shallower reefs. I saw a few Puget Sound king crabs (including an empty, molted body) and fish-eating anemones. Schools of young herring flashed by outside the kelp. In the kelp forest, there were schools of juvenile rockfish and a few adults (copper, black). Back at the entrance to the bay, there was a school of what looked like juvenile Pacific cod or pollack in the eelgrass. I don't think this place gives Race Rocks much competition, but I had a good time here.
