Many more photos in my gallery if you're interested...
http://photos.geckoworks.com/Other/Winter-Harbour-2010/
Last month I was able to join a bunch of my friends on a week long trip to Quatsino Sound, near the northwest tip of Vancouver Island, BC. There were four boats in total - all trailered up to Coal Harbour (short drive inland from Port Hardy), launched and ran the approximately 20 nautical miles out through the inlet, to the small fishing village of Winter Harbour just inside the mouth of the sound. There is a road that goes all the way out, but it's quite rough and most prefer not to trailer boats on it. After launching our boat, one of our group drove the truck and a bunch of extra equipment around to meet us. We rented places at the small marina, and shared a tiny (VERY basic) cabin. Winter Harbour is a very remote place, and staying there is like taking a trip back in time - facilities are minimal, to say the least. The village really only exists for the brief salmon season each summer - only three people live there year-round. Most of the gang were there to fish (and some were really quite fixated on Tyees - 30lb+ Chinook), but I wanted to do some exploratory diving, too.
- On the way out to Winter Harbour after passing through Quatsino Narrows.
I asked around before the trip and nobody seemed to know much about diving in that area. google didn't help much either. Ron at Adventures Down Under in Bellingham suggested Quatsino Narrows and said that he'd heard that the site was simply covered in mammoth Rock Scallops. So I put that on my list, and then marked out a bunch of potential sites on the charts.
- The marina at Winter Harbour.
On our way up, we stopped a night in a campground at Campbell River. That evening we snorkeled down the river from the large pool by the hydro station to the campground several sets of rapids downstream. We took a bit of a beating on the rocks, but it was worth it to see literally thousands of fish working their way upstream towards us as we shot by. The light was fading and my identification skills probably suffered, but I believe I saw a number of Dolly Varden (Char), some huge Steelhead, some Coho and a _lot_ of hefty Chinook. This was the second time I've snorkeled this location and easily the most amazing of the two for fish watching fun.
- One of our cylinder stashes.
The next morning, we timed our launch to allow us a dive in Quatsino Narrows - a small pass which sees currents exceeding 5 knots due to the vast tidal water body behind it. Weather was good and we'd timed slack correctly - visibility was around 35'. There were certainly a lot of huge Rock Scallops - it seemed they were stacked on top of each other everywhere I looked. Whenever I stopped to look at colorful invertebrates, I'd realize they were growing on the shell of a Rock Scallop. There were large schools of Black, Yellowtail, Puget Sound, and Widow Rockfish, a few Chinas and a beautiful old Tiger Rockfish. Kelp Greenling were plentiful also. All in all a very pretty dive site - not as colorful or densely coated with invertebrates as Deception Pass, but sure to please most divers.
- Pretty scene at Hunt Islets. Rockfish from Silvergrays to Yelloweyes, Vermilions to Canaries. Here's a cluster of young'uns.
The next day we were out in the Sound itself, and I was excited to see more coastal species. Unfortunately, as I looked in the water at kelp and downrigger lines etc, it seemed like the the visibility had made a major turn for the worse. We decided to dive South Danger Rock. I rigged my camera with my macro lens and left my helmet cam on the boat - major error. As we descended along the outside of the kelp the visibility was around 10', but as soon as we got below 30', it opened up to what I have to think was 80' to 100'. With the sun overhead we could see a vast area of rocky habitat laid out before us - crystal clear - no dive lights required. Near recreational limits we looked further on down the wall and could see the next few steps lying 60' or more below us. There was enough light at those depths that we could easily see and identify all the fish that were milling around below. I have to say that this was probably one of the most amazing scenes I've ever witnessed underwater. There were huge schools of Blue, Black and Yellowtail Rockfish. China Rockfish were perched all over the wall - almost at regular intervals - as though they'd been zoned one China Rockfish for every 10 square feet. There were occasional Copper Rockfish, and numerous really large Quillbacks. There were Vermilions too - three or four very large fish to each group, cruising around like gangs. And most exciting to me, there were a number of mature Yelloweye Rockfish - perhaps a half dozen, several of which were gravid. They were clearly quite aggressive fish - guarding their preferred ledge and chasing away any who dared get too close. I watched a Lingcod around 13lbs ambling along, perhaps 30 feet from the face of the wall. A significantly bigger Lingcod sitting on the wall, shot out and bit the other Lingcod on its side, grabbing it firmly and shaking it with enough force to leave small chunks floating around. It headed back toward the wall, only to be chased off by a Yelloweye mommy. At first I was cursing my choice of camera lens, but then I realized that I just didn't want to spend time taking many photos - I just wanted to look around and soak up everything I saw. Of course, there were many young rockfishes also. I've never seen this kind of density and diversity of rockfish before - really makes for a stark contrast against the other places I've been.
- Yelloweye Rockfish - still common in Quatsino Sound.
The scenery in Quatsino Sound and off-shore looking back at the island is stunning, and wildlife viewing opportunities abound. There were plenty of Sea Otters, and we particularly enjoyed seeing one mother floating around on her back with scruffy looking baby on her tummy getting a bath via some rough licking. There were also plenty of the Bald Eagles that we see commonly in the San Juans. We were visited by just a few Steller Sea Lions during one dive - never saw any on the surface. Not a single Harbour Seal to report, which seemed odd to me. We got several wonderful Humpback Whale shows and saw baby Black Bears learning to find tasty morsels on the beach with their moms. It's really something when you can be trolling along, perhaps 80 yards off the shoreline, catching lots of salmon and watching bears on the beach and Humpbacks just as close on the other side of the boat.
- Humpbacks - they're umm... BIG.
The rest of the week was patchy for weather and visibility, and I never got quite the right combination of conditions for the wide angle photos that I wanted at South Danger Rock. I did really enjoy dives at Brown Rock, McAllister Islet, Hunt Islets and a few other sites. Sometimes the visibility was fabulous and other times just so-so - I saw several new to me species (Widow and Silvergray Rockfish come to mind). I cannot wait to go back - with the knowledge gained this year I'll be able to take better advantage next time. I'd like to arrange a diving-only expedition sometime, with a group of my favorite adventurous divers - possibly outside fishing season - this area really needs to be explored and surveyed before it changes drastically. BTW - the fishing was very good. Coho were hitting the surface everywhere. There were times when we just couldn't get our gear down to target Chinook because 15lb to 18lb Coho were hitting the lures on the surface. It wasn't hard to get limits of both Coho and Chinook, and my taste buds fondly remember a Sockeye which made fabulous sashimi. Our group took several 40lb+ Chinook. We weren't able to do so well for Halibut, and I never located one to spear while diving unfortunately. We did spear some Lingcod though, and I'm happy to say that my freezer is stocked for another year (didn't fish in Washington this year as a matter of principle - won't support WDFW with my license fees after the commission enacted some horribly misguided new regulations early in the year).
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“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” -- John Muir
by Unknown
