Both the esteemed Cousteau Society and National Geographic undersea photographer, Daniel Doubilet rank Vancouver Island as one of the finest cold-water diving destinations on the planet. Talk about wonder down under.
Dive Sites
Port McNeill has an abundance of premier dive sites. Sun Fun Divers offers day dives in the Johnstone Strait. They incorporate undersea kelp forests, complex and beautiful marine life, sightseeing and whale-watching. Dive at Haddington Island to find wolf eel and the elusive ling cod. At Plumper Rock, negotiate a sea kelp forest teeming with fish including ling cod and several species of rockfish. Pearse Islands Underwater Marine Park is a marine life sanctuary awash in underwater wonder. Watch out for a giant Pacific octopus.
Dive Tours
Viking Adventure Tours offers overnight diving trips from the 16.45m/54ft-long Viking I. The eight-passenger vessel comes equipped with kayaks, dive compressor crab traps, prawn traps and a library. Chief dive sites visited are Plumper Rock and the Pearse Islands. Itineraries can also incorporate Port Hardy dive sites such as Browning Wall, Hunt Rock and Barry Islet.
Imax Superstars
For the 3-D IMAX film Denizens of the Deep, the real stars were the marine creatures of Broughton Archipelago. They proved so thrilling, the Port McNeill region delivered natural wonder without a single Orca whale, salmon or halibut.
Denizens of the Deep
The film's kelp forest was shot in the Pearse Islands; feeding nudibranchs in the Browning Passage; soft coral at Seventree Islet; red Irish lords, ratfish and anemones in Hussar Bay; and at the northern end of the Island, armies of red sea urchins and basket stars. And don't forget the giant Pacific octopus, which can weigh 91k/200lb and whose tentacles can reach 7.6m/25ft. The film's producers say the BC dives were their most exciting and rewarding moments. For more information on diving and dive tours, contact the Port McNeill Visitor Centre.