Hood Canal Dive A Fjord Lately?

If you peruse a map, the Hood Canal looks like a thin strip of water in the shape of a curved fishhook with a broken eyelet. When Captain Vancouver named this area after Admiral Hood in 1792 he didn’t know that three hundred years later the typical modern American meaning of the word “canal” would most likely represent a small body of water less than forty feet across in width and less than twenty feet in depth. The body of water Captain Vancouver named Hood Canal is the only true fjord in the lower 48 states. The fjord has over 240 miles of shoreline and at some points is 1.5 miles wide and is large enough for transiting Orca whales to crisscross in search of harbor seals. The fjord averages 500 ft of depth in the central channel which gives visiting nuclear submarines and deep water squids ample room to roam; the maximum depth is 600 ft in Dabob Bay. In short, Hood Canal is home to several popular dive sites and contains a large diversified concentration of sea creatures; some of which are not typically found south of the Canadian border.

Sund Rock and Octopus Hole
These are considered two of the most famous dive sites on Hood Canal. You have to go through a local dive shop, Hood Sport ‘n Dive, for shore access to the Sund Rock marine preserve. Sund Rock has a north and a south wall to dive. The south wall is between 40-60 ft and usually sports wolf eels, octopus, plumose anemones, shrimps, and crabs. The deeper north wall has the remains of a 45 ft boat at 35 ft, occasional wandering Giant Pacific Octopus on the wall at around 70ft, and more invertebrates including sea whip beds down at 95 ft. This site can get busy at certain times of the year.
Octopus Hole is just a few minutes north from Sund Rock. It is a wall dive that is at a depth of 40-55 ft. Besides octopus, you can find wolf eels, rockfish, and lots of assorted invertebrates clinging to the sides of the walls. The small floating platform chained near the beginning of the wall broke away during one of the winter storms so now the best way to find the wall is to dive and swim at a 45° angle from shore until you reach 40 ft, level off, then follow the substrate southward. To save air, you can do a surface swim straight out from the fallen tree, pointing out into the water, then descend 40ft.You’ll either land right on the wall or a few feet north of it depending on currents and tide level.

Mike’s Beach Resort Shoreline
Just 9 miles north of Lilliwaup Mike’s Beach Resort sports 2000 ft of shoreline. Although this is a resort it also is an area that offers a lot to beginning divers. Divers can go out to fifty feet and see all the creatures they want. There’s an 8 ft octopus out at the sunken barge. The three wolf eels by the reef have become so accustomed to divers that they have been known to nudge divers away from their vicinity if they believe it’s time for you to move along; it’s nice to be a species tolerated by the locals. Technical divers will find a wall dive on the north end starting at 150 ft. The south end of the resort is a great location for advanced divers to see Cloud sponges at around 90 ft typically found north in the San Juan Islands or Canada. There are tall narrow White Sea Whips in gardens on display daily between 80 to 110

feet. Crabs and smaller invertebrates are everywhere and it will take several dives to see it all. No boat traffic and practically no passing currents make this area an ideal place to dive. On site scientific studies have shown that even in times of low dissolved oxygen levels the sea life in this northern fjord area is continuously growing and multiplying. Although visibility can get up to 100 feet in December and January, in the summer time you may have to descend some 20 to 40 feet before visibility opens up to 20 to 40 feet. Around the first of September, the temperature of the water on the surface may feel like 60 to 70 degrees but a mere 14 feet below the surface the water turns to a slightly cooler 51 degrees. So even during the summer months a drysuit comes in handy here.

Potlatch State Park
Potlatch State Park is a popular site due to its easy walk in access, camping facilities right across the street, and lack of boat traffic. A sand and gravel substrate mixed in with patches of mud provides a nice haven for Dungeness crabs; bring your shellfish license, net, and crab measuring gauge. I’ve seen sand dollars wash up on shore, so I know there are some sand dollar beds out here somewhere. Keep in mind that the vis can get really low on the south end of the park and that currents can actually make it hard to swim straight in to shore on the north end, but make for a nice leisurely drift dive.

Pulali Point
Pulali Point near Camp Parsons is a great place to dive. Pulali Point is what many consider a fantastic wall dive between 40-120 ft deep on the south wall with lots of small invertebrates. There are plenty of wolf eels and octopus down between 70-80 ft. At 78 ft we found a couple of wolf eels and a female octopus guarding her den full of eggs. Look out away from the wall and you might glimpse a dogfish. They are very skittish, but their small size makes them good photo subjects.

The Pinnacle
The Pinnacle is my favorite Hood Canal boat dive site. Divers generally follow the anchor down to 38 ft, and then descend down the northeast side of the pinnacle where you can quickly run into the first of five plus wolf eels. The pinnacle is teeming with life and is an excellent location for naturalists and photographers.

I especially like the glowing color of the Vermillion rockfish. You can spend the better part of our dive around 70 ft and never make it around the entire pinnacle. The Pinnacle goes down to 150 ft, but life begins on this seamount top at 28 ft underwater. This is one of my favorite spots for

photographing wolf eels south of Canada.

To see the greatest amount of life in Hood Canal on a single dive you really have to dive from a boat. There are underwater pinnacles, seamounts, ledges, and walls that are impossible to reach from shore. There are a number of charters who are happy to take divers out on the Canal. The best time to dive in the Hood is as soon as possible. In the winter visibility can be as good as 40-100 ft in places. In the summertime near shore visibility can drop down to 3 ft until you descend below 40 ft of depth, and then it may open up to nearly 10-20 ft. it just depends on the day and currents (generated mostly by wind), and how far north or south on the canal you plan your dive. During the summer time the surface water can be above 63°, but 12ft below, the temperature may drop to 52° or less.

The entrance to Hood Canal has a high sill, so water takes 6 months or more before old water layers flush out and fresh oxygenated saltwater circulates in. Lack of dissolved oxygen has had an impact on local sea creatures especially during the past couple of decades of land development and fast paced residential growth. Large concentrations of nitrogen from increased water runoffs combined with poorly functioning septic systems and fertilizer usage may have in the past contributed to higher concentrations of occasional fish die offs, as well as behavioral changes in sea creatures, and more sporadic population densities and relocations of top predators such as octopus, wolf eels, and seals.

After visiting and diving this scenic fjord, erroneously called a canal, I enjoyed it so much that I moved to this area. For a time, a dive with a Harbor seal was less than 25 minutes away from my keyboard and mouse pad. You may not be inspired enough by the natural beauty to pack up and move to the Hood Canal area, but I do know that at the very least you’ll end up making repeat visits to this area too.

I meet a lot of divers from out of state here in the Hood, perhaps it’s because the next best fjord is either in Norway, Canada, or on the south island of New Zealand. Either way, any adventurous diver should not miss out on the natural scenic beauty and the creatures calling this body of water home. ■