Whittaker Point sticks out into Saanich Inlet from the Willis Point area. The marine chart shows the bottom dropping to around 130' deep within 100 meters from shore. There is a public right-of-way from Mark Lane to the water, but the shoreline is probably too steep at allow for shore diving here so I took a boat (Aug. 12, 2019).
I tied up at the South side of the point and swam straight out. Visibility in the shallows was around 10', but below 30' deep it started clearing up. By 60' deep, visibility was around 40-50'. The bottom wasn't as steep as expected. There were a series of rocky reefs stepping down with sandy areas in between. I saw a tiny nudibranch I've never seen before in 22 years of diving. I think it's a salt and pepper nudibranch.
At 70' deep the solid rock reefs ended and there was a silty slope of sand and tiny broken rocks. I went down to around 110' deep here, but I didn't see any more rocky areas. I saw a wolf eel out in the open. It seemed a bit skinny.
I swam back up the slope a bit and then headed North about 80' deep. I eventually came across a big rock area dropping steeply down. I'd guess that this area sticks out from the tip of the point. My maximum depth here was only about 100' since I had already built up enough nitrogen. I could see down the wall to about 130' deep and I didn't see any boot or cloud sponges. There was a school of small yellowtail rockfish. Judging by their size, I'd say they were from the big yellowtail spawn about 2 or 3 years ago. They followed me around for much of the rest of the dive.
I swam back up shallower and saw a sunken wooden sailboat hull on a sandy ledge 50' deep. It wasn't very big, probably less than 20' long.
On my swim back up to my entry-point I saw a dogfish shark and lots of fragments of small sunflower stars that are still being killed by the recent wasting disease.
I think this was an average Saanich Inlet dive. Given the lack of sponges, I don't think it's worth the trouble of taking a boat here. McKenzie Bight is better in my opinion and you can access it from shore.
