This is one of the popular diving spots in the Nanoose area. For some reason, I've never thought of trying it (maybe I thought it was sort of flat and shallow). When I drive up here I usually go to the "bigger", "deeper" spots like Madrona or Dolphin Beach. Lately though, a few people have been telling me how good Wall Beach is for wolf eels. I gave it a try on Feb. 17, 2008. There is plenty of parking at the end of Wall Beach Road and the shortest imaginable trail to the water. I snorkeled out for a bit until the water was around 20 feet deep, then descended and swam straight out. The bottom was a gentle slope of rocks and small boulders. Visibility was 30-40 feet. Eventually, around 50 feet deep, there was a small sandstone wall dropping down a few feet to a flat, sandstone ledge. Just past this ledge there was a steeper slope of boulders that went down to around 80 feet deep. There were swarms of rockfish (tiger, copper, quillback, juvenile yelloweye) and lingcod. The lingcod kept darting off after other fish which stirred up small clouds of silt. There were several flat slabs of rock among the boulders. Many of these had wolf eels under them. Some were single and some were in pairs. There were also many dens around the normal-looking rocks as well. In total, I probably saw around 10 wolf eels. Most of them were pretty shy, just barely peeking out of their holes, but I did see one female swimming out in the open. I didn't see any boot or cloud sponges, but there were several feather stars and a few white plumose anemones. This rocky slope continued off to my right and it seemed to be going deeper, but I didn't have the air to follow it. There didn't seem to be many wolf eels out this far either. Most of the rocks in this area were too small to create dens. Most of the wolf eels I saw were around 60-70 feet deep. Swimming back, I noticed that the jumbled piles of rocks in the shallower depths looked like they would make good wolf eel dens as well. Some local Victoria divers had been here the week before and they saw them only 20 feet deep. My previous apathy to this site has been overcome. I'll probably even be back.
