Diving
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Diving near Quadra Island

We took the opportunity to try diving in cold water in probably the best cold water diving spot in the world, Quadra Island, just off of Vancouver Island.

It was very different from the Caribbean diving that we had done before. In the Caribbean I wore shorts and the basic scuba gear. In Canada I needed to wear the wetsuit (2 parts), booties, hood, gloves and a lot of extra weight to compensate for their additional buoyancy at the surface.

The current around Quadra Island is quite intense and I had never experienced drift diving like this.
It was also my first time using my new underwater flash, so with all that was going on and new I wasn't really expecting to get any good pictures.

Scroll down to see pictures ..

A wall of Strawberry Anemone.
This picture was taken as I was drifting quite quickly from left to right along the wall.

I'm in there somewhere under a ton of rental gear.
You might notice that my weight belt had come a bit loose and was hanging on my butt, not my waist.

A colony of Strawberry Anemone

I noticed this beautiful blue frondose algae (Iridea, Gymnogongrus)

Still haven't identified this fish.

Getting onto the boat with flippers on and all those extra pounds around my waist
 and in my BC was a bit different from Roatan & St Croix.

I think this is a Nudibranch ( Hermissenda crassicornis ? ) in the upper right.
There was so much life that I really couldn't see half of it.
Next time, I will need to slow down and just hang out in one spot for a while.

Cauliflower Anemone

Here you can see the current that was pushing me along the wall. I think that is a brittle star.

This was a swimming scallop / clam. If you touched it is swam away. Really quite fun to watch.

These are some kind of barnacles, probably giant barnacles, reaching their 'tentacles' out to catch passing nutritious life in the current.

Looking down on a fish

Can you see the fish?
There were so many creatures that blended in perfectly with this underwater seascape.

Jellyfish on the surface

Nudibranch

California Sea Cucumber

Snails & Anemone

Nudibranch and red Burrowing sea cucumber

Blood Star

Painted Star

Starfish detail with what I think is an orange cup coral in the middle and a Lined Chiton near the top

Detail of Orange Cup Coral & Lined Chiton

A Sunflower Star

More Lined Chitons (3 of them)

Sea Urchin .. poisonous ..
 

Walking from Abyssal Diving to the ferry to Campbell River and on to the next adventure >>

Other Dive Pages : Roatan - St Croix - BC - Key Largo - Bonaire - Anacapa Island - Isle of Shoals

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