Scuba Diving in British Columbia, Canada

Dive Site: Porteau Cove Provincial Park

Location: Vancuver Island

Porteau Cove is another one of the best dives within a half hour of Vancouver. Weekends can be busy since this dive site is a popular spot for all the local scuba dive training and dive lessons. Visibility can also be an issue, so check ahead with a local Vancouver dive shop to see what conditions have been like.

Some divers call Porteau Cove a Diver’s Playground and some call it a Diver’s Paradise, and when you dive it you will see why. As you turn into the Provincial Park, you will pass information signs and maps that show the location of several wrecks. Plenty of marine life is attracted to these wrecks, including giant ling cod and colorful plumose anemones making your dives even more exciting.

The basic dives are at depths between 20 and 60 feet. A jungle gym type of artificial reef network has been constructed from groups of tires, concrete piles & blocks, and steel beams, which are full of rock and ling cod, star fish, nudibranch, and even an octopus or two. One of two yellow markers indicates the location of the Granthall, a 28 meter steel-hulled CPR tugboat built in Montreal in 1928. In 1967 the superstructure was removed and the Granthall became a herring packer, which was then scuttled to serve as an artificial reef in 1992.

The second yellow marker at Porteau Cove shows the location of a 30 foot (11 meter) rusty crane barge named the Centennial III, which also lies near a 40 foot (15 meter) cement sailboat hull. You should see orange and white plumose anemone, shrimp, grunt sculpins, kelp greenlings, crabs, sea cucumbers, ling cod, perch, and other rock fish.

For more advanced scuba divers, at a depth of around 90 feet (33 meters), lies the remnants of a former minesweeper called the Nakaya, which was scuttled in 1985 at the northern edge of the diving area. The surface marker has been removed, so from the last white buoy, take a heading of about 30 degrees. You should find the old Nakaya anchor line, which still has a round buoy 10 feet under the surface holding most of the line up. From there go left (out/deeper) and you should run right into wreck of the the Nakaya.

For more information on diving in British Columbia, see www.cooldives.com

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