Victoria's Ogden Point

Photos and text by Mark Hiebert

Yet no more than five minutes away from downtown Victoria, British Columbia is (some say) Canada's most popular dive spot. It's easy to see why. There are other, better sites off southern Vancouver Island, but they can't match the breakwater at Ogden Point for convenience.

Several quality dive shops are in the downtown Victoria area. They all offer a full range of services.

The site also boasts lots of life (we'll get to that) and easy navigation. The breakwater is a 3/4 kilometre long barrier of stone blocks, built to protect Victoria's harbour from storms. Even for non-divers it's a popular destination for a walk.

The breakwater is divided into five flags. Each painted flag corresponds to a plaque under the surface which tells you what you can see in the area. These plaques are scratched and covered with marine growth and are almost impossible to read, so here's a basic guide to the life found at various points along the breakwater. I recommend three dives.

The first starts at flag #2, which is a good entry point for beginners. In the warmer months, this marks the beginning of the kelp forest. The bottom is only about 25 feet deep here and it is a relaxing place to begin a dive surrounded by small schools of tube snouts and sea-perch. Young kelp greenlings bicker with each other and pick around for food without seeming to notice the watching divers. As you swim out along the breakwater, it gets deeper. Plumose anemones cluster on top of boulders. Swimming scallops and decorator crabs shelter beneath them. The swimming scallops often fall victim to the giant fish-eating anemone. Sometimes over a foot across, this anemone can be either red or pale yellow.

Large lingcod sit perfectly still on the rocks, often not moving until a diver swims by just a foot away. Other fish life common here include painted greenlings and copper, quillback, tiger, canary, and Puget Sound rockfish. The small orange Puget Sound rockfish often hover in large groups, making you feel as if you are swimming in a huge, crowded goldfish bowl. While the rocks are not smothered with life on this dive, a huge variety of creatures can be seen. If you're lucky, you might spot an octopus.

For those divers with more experience, stamina and who don't mind the hike, this next dive is for you. It happens to be my favourite for one main reason; lots of wolf eels. Located between flags four and five, it is the second of two bends in the breakwater. I like to enter a bit past the corner and swim back underwater. In late summer and fall, divers are treated to large schools of herring. Swimming through the silvery mass is a great experience, but divers aren't the only ones who benefit. I remember many times, pausing under the kelp canopy at the beginning of a dive. Resting on the bottom all around me are several large lingcod. They take turns dashing up into the school and gulping down a herring before settling down again to wait for their victims to re-group. Sometimes a harbour seal will join in for a meal, and once I saw a sea bird fly down underwater after the panicked fish. Herring get no peace.

Going deeper, many rocks are dotted with orange colonial tunicates and several varieties of colourful nudibranchs. The star attractions of this dive live at about 50 feet. I have no idea exactly how many wolf eels there are at this site, but on one dive I counted seven. The most popular mated pairs live right at the corner at 50 feet between two huge stone blocks. One of the males here is about seven feet long and his head is as big as a person's.

The first thing you will see of them are their pale heads sticking out of a crevice. They are messy eaters; underwater cookie-monsters, and this attracts kelp greenlings, tiger rockfish and long-fin sculpins. These fish set up residence around wolf eel dens. Although the wolf eels are what most divers come here for, in the winter you may be lucky enough to be buzzed by sea lions. On one memorable dive I was happily taking pictures of a wolf eel when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. Thinking it was a fellow diver, I turned around to see a large male sea lion inches from my face. He had been tapping me with his nose. He then sped off just as I was raising my camera. I could almost hear him laughing.

A caution about this section of the breakwater is the current. At the wrong times it can be almost too strong to swim against. For experienced divers this shouldn't be too dangerous as they can just ascend along the slope and climb out if it becomes unmanageable.

The third dive requires you to walk all the way out to the end of the breakwater. The long hike means few divers ever come here. This dive has the same creatures described in the two previous ones, including wolf eels, but what sets it apart are the plumose anemone beds. Starting at about 40 to 50 feet, they cover the bottom for as far as you can see in all directions. Many large red urchins also cluster on the rocks. You can dive deeper here as the breakwater meets the sand at about 80 feet.