Words and Photography by Jill Heinerth With travel opportunities shut down by COVID-19, we are all trying to find ways to stay excited about diving. As much as I long for a warm, tropical dive hovering over a Caribbean reef, I have to admit that I have recently found …

Wrecks, walls, and worms all feature prominently in British Columbia’s high octane, highly adventurous Discovery Passage Words and Photography by Russell Clark As Editor of DIVER magazine, one of the first questions I get asked by people is “where’s your favourite place to dive?” I think the question is a little …

A love letter to Newfoundland, the Truk Lagoon of Great White North, a destination that will fast become your new second home Words by Russell Clark “Sit yer-self down lads, I just cooked some of me home made moose sausages.” The first words from local legend Rick Stanley are …

Canadian Artist Grace Marquez captures the essence of what it is to be submerged Words by Robert Osborne Diving can be a very personal, almost intimate experience. Perhaps it’s the silence—the lack of chatter—that surrounds the activity; perhaps it’s because it’s such an all absorbing activity—no clutter from daily …

By Kirk Krack I’m often asked by students around the world if I freedive in British Columbia where I live, as most of my work and teaching is done globally and usually in more tropical destinations. This question is really about the temperature of the water and the tidal …

Words by William Nadeau Specialized in technical, commercial, public safety diving, and underwater investigavite procedures, the RCMP’s Underwater Recovery Team always gets their man In 1959 a Conservation Officer and his pilot were flying to La Loche, Saskatchewan in a Cessna 180 when something went wrong. The plane crashed …

Inside the current issue of DIVER (Fall 2020) you’ll see a lovely four page feature by our regular columnist Maxwel Hohn, all about the incredible journey of the western toad tadpole. Maxwel has been capturing footage of the tadpoles for four years, accumulating in this mini nature documentary, noq …

Words and Photos by Eduardo Baena Located on Highway 99, halfway between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek, British Columbia’s Pavilion Lake offers a unique opportunity to observe one of the largest known colonies of freshwater microbialites, a type of stromatolite. These calcareous structures resembling rocks were formed …

Canadian divers spend a lot of time on boats, whether they are in command of the vessel, crewing, or just a passenger, having a more accurate knowledge of marine mammal safety and stewardship is highly recommended. A collaboration between the Canadian Power Squadron and local whale researchers and educators …

Words by Nath Lasselin Going with the flow raises awareness of drinking water health It was Friday morning, around 7:00 am. I was all geared up, with my drysuit, my latex hood, my modified Kirby Morgan full face mask, communication system, rebreather, tanks, computer, scooter and all kinds of …

The Niagara Divers’ Association will present its 21st Annual Shipwrecks Symposium on Saturday, May 2, 2015. This one-day symposium on shipwrecks will feature multimedia presentations with internationally renowned speakers from both the United States and Canada. $44 CDN / US up to January 26, 2015; $49 CDN / US …

Hitchin’ a ride on the Red-eye Medusa By Jett and Kathryn Britnell Named for the telltale ‘red eyespots’ ringing the base of its tentacles, the Red-eye medusa (Polyorchis pencillatus) is one of the prettiest jellyfish in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea. These ocelli are actually tiny light-sensitive receptors that help …

Text and Photograph by Andy Murch While hunting for skates on a featureless sea floor around Madrona Point on southern Vancouver Island, B.C., I came across this sunken tree trunk with its cover of  gigantic orange plumose anemones. These anemones are usually white, but under certain environmental conditions (like …

The Franklin ship discovered in early September by the 2014 search team in the Canadian arctic has been identified as HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 two-ship expedition and the vessel directly under his command.  HMS Terror, remains to be found. The confirmation was made by …

Originally Published for DIVER April 1995 By Phil Nuytten So there I was, right at the edge, one foot actually in the water.  I kneeled down to pull on my fin and lost my balance.  Just a little.  My knee moved forward and down, perhaps six inches, no more.  In …

First Published in DIVER Volume 38 Issue 5 By Phil Nuytten The problem: A swillion, or so, years ago, we humans were designed (or evolved, or left here by aliens – please substitute your desired flavour) to function best under a fairly rigid set of specifications. These specs include …

Advances in gear design & technology over 60 years may not make diving more fun, but it is much easier. And, a picture’s worth a lot of words, we think! Text by Phil Nuytten  Bouyancy Compensators Bouée Fenzy / Aqua Lung Axiom i3 The French Navy’s Bouée Fenzy, left, was …

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen has just begun his seven day, sub aquatic  adventure at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The 38 year old from London, Ontario will be leading a crew to explore the ocean floor as part of a simulation to help prepare for future space missions. NEEMO (NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations) …

Gorgonian corals become rockfish communities Photograph by Lou Lehmann – Text by Neil McDaniel Gorgonian corals are common in the cold waters off Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts, but they usually dwell in deep, dark water well beyond SCUBA depths. But on the Pacific coast, a few species are …

In a mission through time Nuytco’s robotic Exosuit is set to dive on an ancient shipwreck in the Greek isles for an uncommon artifact called the ‘Antikythera mechanism’. Used for predicting astronomical events, the advanced mechanical calculator was developed in antiquity and is often characterized as the world’s oldest …

Text and Photograph by Joseph C. Dovala Today the SS Saganaga rests peacefully on the bottom of Conception Bay, Newfoundland, in the cool, clear North Atlantic. The World War II story of how she came to be such a great wreck, and dive, is anything but peaceful, however, and unravels the …

The University of British Columbia’s Project Seahorse just announced a rare documented sighting of a seahorse in Canadian waters. The sighting comes to light as a result of iSeahorse.org, the new citizen science initiative created by Project Seahorse. Two divers recently uploaded a photograph of the lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) that …

Tonnes of fuel oil were recovered from the aging wreck but the Coast Guard says it will monitor the remote site for leakage Text by Robert Osborne Grenville Channel is the very epitome of west coast beauty. Rugged, heavily forested mountain slopes plunge precipitously into the deep, dark water …

In dark depths rarely visited by scuba divers, subs explore hectares of sponge many storeys high that form British Columbia’s ancient Sea of Glass By Sabine Jessen and Alexandra Barron The Aquarius submersible plummets through the depths, the light fades and darkness surrounds the small white vessel. Through the …

Divers encounter jelly with a bubbly personality Text and Photo by Trisha Stovel During a recent search for six gill sharks with Rendezvous Dive Adventures, I encountered one of my favourite critters: a fried egg jelly. In the end, we didn’t see any of the elusive sharks during our …

  By Andy Murch This was the most energetic and entertaining giant pacific octopus that I’ve encountered, and I’m chalking it up to youthful trial and error. Daytime GPO sightings are usually rather fleeting but this young animal was bouncing all over Race Rocks looking for the perfect spot …

  By Donnie Reid Before she sank in a storm October 14, 1901, the sternwheeler, A.J. Goddard, was a workhorse ferrying people and cargo along the Yukon River during the Klondike Gold Rush era of the late 1800s. Like many other craft designed to service the huge influx of people …

Dr. Phil Nuytten, President of Nuytco Research Ltd and Publisher of this magazine, received the prestigious William Beebe Award from the world renowned Explorers’ Club in New York on March 23rd, 2012. This very distinguished award is given to those who have made exceptional life-long contributions to underwater exploration. …

This Exosuit is production model 001 and the first in a series of three designs from Nuytco Research of North Vancouver, B.C. From the first ergonomic mock-ups and tests to its unveiling last month, the Exosuit has been in development for a decade. It’s the latest generation atmospheric diving …

Lake Minnewanka has a rich history. There are recorded archaeological sites showing pre-contact occupations that cover an entire 10,000 year period. Artifacts have been found from the early, middle and late pre-contact periods. The Minnewanka site is one of a series of such early sites in the lower Bow …

DIVER magazine scours the internet so you don’t have to. Simply browse our selection of todays top stories and click for further reading… Researchers from the University of British Columbia have been using Google Earth to investigate fish enclosures of the Mediterranean. Read Article. Source: New Scientist Could mobile …

Winter diving along Canada’s Pacific shore has its benefits and principal among them is the astonishingly clear water to be enjoyed much of the time by scuba enthusiasts up and down the length of the British Columbia coast. As temperatures cool and summer plankton blooms die off, underwater photographers …

Every autumn sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) enter British Columbia’s Fraser River and battle their way hundreds of miles upstream to spawn in the big river’s countless tributaries.  Of these the Adams River run is arguably the best known.  A dominant run occurs every four years and after several dismal …

The Muskallonge or Muskie, as she is affectionately known in diving circles, is not so well known in her watery grave as she was in service on the Seaway. Then, she was touted as the largest tug on the Great Lakes. Built in 1896 at Port Huron, Michigan, she …

A mid winter opportunity to dive Browning Pass in B.C.’s Queen Charlotte Strait delivered up cold February winds and rain… but when they abated and the sun came out we were treated to some of the best visibility I’d ever enjoyed in these remarkably fertile waters at the top of …

  Perfectly ‘synched’, these Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (Lagenorhynchus oblquidens) gracefully paced our boat as we motored across Blackfish Sound near Port McNeil on Vancouver Island’s rugged north coast. These playful and social marine mammals are a favorite in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea, and encounters such as this are among …