This is a site I've been trying to dive for a couple of years. It's a submerged reef just South of North Cod Reef. In Greg Dombowsky's 1999 book Diver's Guide Vancouver Island South, he mentions South Cod Reef as an "other" site (not one of the good, main sites). The only description is that it's "Not the same caliber as its big brother North Cod Reef, but worth a look". Other than that reference, I've never heard anything about what it's like there underwater. The local dive charter boat has scheduled dives there a few times over the last couple of years, but it has always been cancelled (usually for lack of interest). I've come to see it as the Curse of South Cod Reef. The MV Inde dive boat scheduled a trip there again on July 14, 2024 and I signed up. In keeping with the curse, there were only a few paying divers who were interested. I could picture South Cod Reef nested smugly out there on the bottom, snickering sinisterly at the effectiveness of its curse. If reefs had hands, this one would be rubbing them together, because that's supposed to be a sign that someone is sinister and scheming for some reason. It was all overconfidence though, since the charter decided to run anyway, and we bravely charged off to break the curse.
I dropped down on the South-West side of the reef since that's where the chart and sidescan image show the steepest drop. Visibility in the shallows was only 10'. deeper down, it cleared slightly to maybe 15'. I was surprised by how bare the rocks looked compared to nearby North Cod Reef. Up close, there were small things like cup corals, staghorn bryozoans, some giant barnacles, etc, but nothing like the wall of plumose anemones at North Cod. Below 50' deep or so, there were lots of gnarled sponges. In some areas they were spaced out every few feet. The slope wasn't a straight-down wall like the wall at North Cod, but it dropped down steeply enough in small angled walls and ledges.
I reached the bottom of the wall 110' deep. It ended in a flat, sandy area. I didn't swim out over it to see if it dropped off again. Judging by the sidescan image, the bottom goes out pretty flat for awhile.
I wasn't impressed by the amount of marine life down here at the bottom of the wall either and I didn't want to shorten my dive by staying too long at these depths so I swam back up a bit shallower on the wall.
So far, this site had an unusual lack of anemones, but then I saw a boulder in the distance that was covered with plumose anemones. Rockfish seemed to like the boulder too since there were several (mostly copper) hanging around it.
I saw another group of plumose anemones. Under them, I saw a large male wolfeel head peeking out of its den. I didn't notice it at the time, but later, looking at the pictures, I saw a female in there as well.
The sidescan image shows a few canyon-like trenches on the far side of the shallow peak. I dropped down into one of them. It went down deeper than expected. Its bottom was about 70' deep. I was hoping that the current funneling through it would encourage a greater abundance of invertebrate life like anemones, but other than lots of giant barnacles, the walls seemed kind of empty.
I swam back up to near the peak of the reef and had a look at some smaller canyons before ascending in the kelp.
In hindsight, I think this wasn't too bad of a dive. At the time, I was disappointed since I did this as a second dive after the life-packed wall at North Cod Reef, but South Cod is still crusted over with lots of less-obvious, smaller invertebrate life. The abundance of gnarled sponge was a highlight as was the mated wolfeel pair. I'd like to come back and see other parts of the reef, like the North side. I'm just glad we broke the South Cod Reef curse since I think curses are bad for society.
