I haven't been diving here in many years. I showed up on Mar. 13, 2016 to remind myself what this place is like underwater. The narrow dirt trail to the water is now eroded away so it's too narrow in one place for a car to drive on it. I parked up on the road and walked down the path instead. The tide was high and Tanner Rock was submerged so I didn't see any seals.
Visibility near shore was only about 2'. Once I descended and swam out a bit, visibility improved to maybe 15-20'. I followed my compass towards Tanner Rock. The channel between Tanner Rock and the shore was a flat, muddy plain with bits of wood (I assume this used to be a log booming ground). There were lots of alabaster nudibranchs and clusters of squid eggs. A sealion swam a few passes around me.
I reached the base of Tanner Rock and swam around it counter-clockwise. The base met the sand at around 30-35'. The far side was the steepest. There wasn't much life around. Orange plumose anemones were the most obvious creatures. I saw 2 separate groups of dozens of kelp crabs crowded together. They were probably mating. I didn't see any fish except for some copper rockfish around some rocky cracks in one area. A side-scan sonar image shows another, deeper rocky reef down the sand slope out from Tanner Rock, but from what I can tell it's between 100-150' deep and I didn't want to waste my air in the spooky, dark depths looking for it.
I also noticed on the side-scan sonar image that there was another rocky area about 110 meters North and a bit West of Tanner Rock. I followed my compass out from Tanner Rock across the flat sandy bottom hoping to find it. Along the way, I saw a dive fin on the bottom.
Eventually I reached the rocky reef about 30' deep. It had lots of orange plumose anemones on it, but that's about it. I also saw 2 small Tanner crabs. I usually see them in March/April when they come up from deeper depths to mate. I didn't have the air to see this whole reef. I just swam around for maybe 10 minutes.
I followed my compass back towards shore. After awhile, I came across a rope running across the bottom. I guessed it was put there by divers to lead from shore out to Tanner Rock so I followed it towards shore. It ended under some pilings near the North side of the point. I think these pilings were used to tie up log booms in the old days.
I suppose if you live on this side of Saanich Inlet and wanted a quick, local dive, Tanner Rock would be an ok place to go to. For me, it doesn't seem to be worth the drive when there are many much-better spots on the other side of the inlet. I think I'll give Tanner Rock another several-year break.
