Ansell Place

Bowyer Island

Halkett Wall

Access: Boat Dive
Skill Level: Advanced, because of the depth and sometimes current you need to have some experience with wall dives.
Location: Gambier Island

If you like wall dives you are going to enjoy this one. At about a 100ft 33m you can find boot and clout sponges with all kind of little critters living in it.

As you make your way up the wall you’ll pass a plumes Anemone forest with decorator crabs, Puget Sound King crabs, Lingcod’s, and in the cracks octopus. Starting at around 20ft 7m you will find purge schooling in the ribbon kelp.

Pam Rocks

Porteau Cove

Access: Shore dive
Skill level: This site has something to offer all skill levels

Location: Porteau Cove is 10 kilometers north of Lions Bay on the eastern shore of Howe Sound. Take Highway 99, the sea to sky highway, look for a white blue sign directing you to Porteau Cove Provincial Park.

Description: Porteau Cove is the closest thing to a diver's playground. Marker floats make the artificial reefs easy to locate. The two yellow floats mark the hull of a tug, the Granthall, and a rusty crane barge, the Centennial III. Near the barge lies a 40 foot ferrocement sailboat hull. Orange and white plumose anemone, shrimp, galathaeid, grunt sculpins, kelp greenlings, lincod, perch, and rockfish all make this artificial reef their home. A daisy chain of tires connects the wrecks with a collection of cement pillings, cement blocks, pontoon barges, storage containers, and slabs. Fish, stars, nudibranchs, and octopus all live in this section of the site. There is a third wreck at this site which is a little further out than the first two and a little deeper. The Nakaya rests in about 90 feet of water and has a plethora of life living on it. This wreck is a wooden boat so it has deterioated quite a bit over the years so it is no longer safe to penetrate, but nonetheless this is a fantastic dive

Whytecliff Park

Access: Shore dive.
Skill level: This site offers something for all skill levels.
Location: Whytecliff park is located in southeastern Howe Sound. From the upper levels highway, take Exit #1 for 400m and take the first left off the highway, this turns into Marine drive, which you should follow as it winds itself to Whytecliff park. The park is marked with a large wooden sign.

Description: This site is easily the most popular in the Vancouver area. It's one of the closes to down town, offering a pick-nick area, rest rooms, telephone, and a concession stand. This site is actually three in one; Whyte Islet, Whytecliff marker, and the Cut. You will find rapidly descending series of walls and rocky ledges, mild slopes, and some remnants of the long ago removed marina docks. Home to calcarous tube worms, sea stars, sea cucumbers; as well as lemon peel and alabaster nudibranchs. Whit and orange plumose anemones are plentiful. Brittle stars, large sea pens, sunflower stars, yellow boring spunges, sea peaches. Glassy sea squirts and sea cucumbers. Purple and green sea urchins, octopus, colonies of zoanthids, and giant barnicles. Cloud sponges, kelp, barnacles, purple stars, blackeye gobies, and flatfish are common here. Sea firs, swimming scallops, gumboot chiltons, galathaeid crabs, and buffalo sculpins are found at Whyteciff as well. Dogfish and seals are common around the day-marker.

Wheelchair access: A diver can be wheeled down the ramp and carried over the logs and rocks, from there all areas can be swum to