Alaska: the last wilderness? part 1

Anyone who’s met me knows that after diving in drysuits, my next hugest fear is diving in cold water. So when Mike Lever, the owner of the Nautilus Explorer, invited me to sample Alaskan diving, which has been described by Jacques Cousteau as second in colour and diversity to only the Red Sea, I whizzed down to Swanage for a drysuit dip, packed my woolly socks and thermals in the middle of June and headed to Vancouver Island to join the vessel for a ten-day cruise taking in the very best dive sites of Canada and Alaska.

The Nautilus Explorer is a vessel which operates to various destinations out of Vancouver and is truly of the pampering kind, with a homely welcome, a sparkling-clear hot tub and a bar with over 35 kinds of beer, 11 types of scotch and over 50 different wines. It has a custom-designed 11.5 metre dive skiff especially designed for the kind of diving that this part of the world offers, and makes every diver’s life easier as well as lots of fun. The great part about this particular trip was that it offered a real mix of every kind of adventurer’s dream - up-close and personal experiences of swimming, sliding and kayaking with icebergs, hikes through the rainforests and bathing in hot springs next to waterfalls, as well as opportunities to see killer and humpback whales as well as grizzly bears, among numerous other wildlife. Would it really be possible to experience all of this in just ten days as well as world-class diving?

Cruising up the Strait of Georgia just before sunset, leaving the port of Vancouver behind us, and within an hour we had the company of a group of northern right whale dolphins joining us for some bow-riding and surfing antics. It was definitely a great appetiser for the journey ahead, with the next morning bringing us glimpses of killer whales in the distance in Johnston Strait, one of the world’s hot spots for encounters with these gypsies of the sea.

A gentle reminder of the briefing bell reminded me that I was about to have my first adventure in a giant kelp forest before heading to the famous dive sites of British Columbia. Half of the species within the Pacific Northwest area are endemic, with no other region in the world having so many species of sea stars – there are an estimated 96 kinds in these waters. Shaking from fear but still smiling as always, I nervously plunged into the emerald-green water and as soon as I saw the kelp under the water, my fear was overtaken by a rush of enthusiasm to explore. Being careful to avoid getting tangled in the mass, my Divemaster Sandy went through some skills, as well as giving me a taster of cold-water marine life and the colours that lay beneath the waves. Within minutes I was already beginning to start enjoying diving in my drysuit.

North America’s ‘Number One Dive Site’ was next on the agenda, Browning Wall. As the name suggests, this is in Browning Pass and is often referred to as the ‘Mecca of cold water wall dives’. The wall actually starts at 30m above the water line and its depth varies from about 54-70m and is covered with an absolute carpet of the most-beautiful marine life you will ever see in all shapes and shades of the rainbow. Giant plumrose anemones which can grow up to one-metre tall resembling powder puffs make their home on the walls. Sponges, soft corals, urchins and starfish, all surrounded by deep reds, oranges, yellows, purples and white being the most common of all colours. Red Irish lords peek out in between the sponges, with king crabs and octopus all being seen on the wall. Longfin sculpins and different varieties of rockfish (cold-water cousins of scorpionfish) can also be found among the never-ending marine life. The longer I looked at a patch of coral, the more marine life that emerged from it within minutes.

Nearer to the surface during the safety stop, the topography changed to include bull kelp attached to the rocky ledges, huge green surf anemones mixed in with huge red and purple sea urchins. I’d never seen so many different colours before on just one dive. The only known enemy to this dive site are divers’ fins and, fortunately, due to its’ remote location, few divers in comparison to the Red Sea can access this pristine place.

Dillon Rock is another dive site which is rated as highly as Browning Wall. The Imax team have spent five weeks filming here, drawn by the abundance of life as well as guaranteed encounters with numerous wolf eels, two-metre-long cousins to the UK’s wolf fish, giant Pacific octopus, which can weigh up to 73kg, and lots of other marine life. I’m not sure who was scared the most when a wolf eel popped out of a hole to see what was going on when I started taking pictures! The setting is both pristine and tranquil, set in the midst of Shushartie Bay, the home to various black bears and their cubs. As soon as I surfaced, a sow and two cubs were walking along the shore. The adventure really was just beginning and I had to pinch myself that I was seeing all of this on just day number two.

Moving further up the BC coastline we arrived at Princess Royal Island, which was to bring even more spectacular opportunities for both divers and non-divers. Wreck divers weren’t disappointed either, with the opportunity to explore the Transpac. Captain Mike says that this is his favourite wreck dive ever. The ship is so unusual in that it is practically upright against a wall, with the bow of this wreck sitting at 33m and the stern perched on a ledge at 86m. My fellow divers absolutely loved it, but not being the bravest of colder-water wreck hunters, I opted for a visit to Butedale, an abandoned cannery and what is called by some a ‘ghost town’. This island also has the densest population of Kermode bears, which are black bears that have white fur and the usual black nose and paws and, if you are quiet, visitors sometimes get a rare glimpse as they are pulling into the dock.

continued in part 2...