Scubareefing
Cold water critters
Fly to Vancouver Island and rent a car. Port Hardy is four hours north of Nanaimo by car on the east of Vancouver Island.
April through October
Browning Pass, Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada
Browning Pass Hideaway (vancouverislanddive.com), North Island Diving (northislanddiver.com)
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Diving opportunities in Three Island, Canada are available.
By Darryl Leniuk (Adapted from "passport to diving the world")
Enter a world that rivals any tropical reef in terms of colour and sheer density of marine life.
From the surface the North Pacific seems a cold, inhospital place. But back roll off the boat into Browning Pass and you'll enter a world that rivals any tropical reef in terms of colour and sheer density of marine life. tiny 7-Tree Island is one of the best cold-water dive sites on the planet. A near vertical wall plummeting to the depths, 7-Tree is plastered in pink soft corals, giant yellow sponges, and rainbow-hued anemones. Football-sized Puget Sound king crabs ramble along the wall while Red-Irish lords, a cold-water scorpionfish, camouflage against the colour. Finish the dive in the sandy shallows on the backside of the island looking for nudibranchs and juvenile octopus.
(Ok enough with the stories, I'm itchin' for a dive)