BSAC TRAVEL CLUB - Trip Reports

TRAVEL CLUB

Diving Alaska

by Tony Reed

It's huge - it's big! Alaska is bigger than Britain, France, Italy and Spain combined. Yet the population is the same as greater Bristol at half a million and of those, a quarter of a million live in the largest city - Anchorage. We (my wife Jen and John & Barb Watt, a couple who are long time friends), decided early on to hire a car and limit our exploration to manageable and enjoyable proportions. We went as far as the Denali National Park (in the centre of the state to the north of Anchorage) that contains Mount McKinley, America's highest mountain and then as far south as Seward on the Kenai peninsular coast, named after the man who bought Alaska for the Americans for a few bob.

The adventure was not a specific diving holiday but more to get a feel of the wilderness of America's largest state. This we did, including viewing the wildlife of the land - moose, caribou, wolf, grizzly bears and a close encounter with a black bear (15 yards on the narrow path ahead but that's another story!) and of the sea - hump-back whales, orcas (killer whales) Stella sealions, south pacific porpoises, dall dolphins, sea otters, bald eagles and crested puffins. We spent time hiking on the glaciers and the Harding Icefield (1,000 sq. mls), trekking in the National Parks, sleeping in log cabins and eating lots of salmon.

The diving took extreme perseverance to organise and was very expensive. It must have taken 12 telephone calls, even though I went armed with a couple of web-site contacts, and going through 5 people to get through to the right person, it cost £180 for a day's diving. As it is for most of the American states, PADI is the main guiding body for sport diving; I could find no clubs such as in the BSAC mould. Regular charters could be arranged for the summer weekends but my schedule meant I was available only on certain days in mid-week.

The outfit I used was Dive Alaska, based in Anchorage and the manager Scott brought down a full set of hired kit, including thermal undersuit and dry suit. He was very keen to establish whether or not I was dry-suit trained. I suspect that he was anxious that I shouldn't christen it! We dived out of Seward, (120 mls S of Anchorage), using the 30m hard boat Tide Dancer. The problem with diving in Alaska (if there is a problem) is deep water. The state is covered with glaciers, many of which end up in the sea as long, narrow fjords. Sometimes 1000 ft (it's quaint how the world's greatest super power still uses imperial measure) can be gained within 100ft of the shore.

We sailed about 15 miles due south to a site called Boulder City in the Elerado Narrows in Resurrection Bay, dropped in with my buddy, a lady fire-fighter who was complete with twin-set and pony. The hire gear was excellent and I stayed snug and warm in a water temperature of 50°F (10°C). The boulders on a ledge at the bottom of the cliff consisted of swim-throughs all covered with a profusion of marine life, very similar to our North Atlantic shores but all much larger specimens, e.g. snake lock anemones measured 300 mm across as against say 30mm in UK, sea cucumbers 500mm long orange with conical soft 'horns' along the sides, plumose anemones standing up 600 mm tall and 250 mm across plus huge rock fish up to 1m long and sinister-looking wolf fish looking for a meal. We levelled out at 90 ft and then worked our way up the face. Near the surface kelp stalks anchored to small boulders with holdfasts 1m across were the thickness of my arm. This giant scale is due to the high nutrient/ plankton content of the water, a plankton bloom accounted for the comparatively low visibility in July of 6m, I was told that in May it can be 30m or more.

My second dive was on a site called Barwell Island about a mile away from the first. On the way we spotted Stella sealions, dolphins and sea otters. This was a cliff face, we went down to 80ft but it seemed to continue forever, the viz was better at 10m -much the same impressive marine life.
Debrief - when I finally made touch with "Dive Alaska", the service and hired kit was excellent, the manager Scott even picked me up on the way down to Seward. The boat was comfortable if a bit sluggish but access/entry was easy. But it was expensive. The viz was disappointing but it can be better. There are few known diveable wreck sites at present, presumably due to the depths but loads of undived sites are waiting to be explored.

After Alaska we stopped at Victoria, an attractive city on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Managed a couple of shore dives on Ogden Point Breakwater. The breakwater, 1/2mile long has the Ogden Point Dive Centre and Café at its land end. Again excellent kit -a two piece 7mm wet suit and the cost of 2 dives - £25. Access to the water was challenging as it required climbing down 1m high blocks in full kit. There are 5 marked dive site stations, which went down to 20m about 50m distance out from the breakwater. Viz say 5-6m, and marine life very similar to Alaska. Excellent value for money and the bonus of cheap, good quality food in the café. Again, if I had been there at the weekend, a boat dive would have been available.

Further information:
Dombowowsky, Greg. Diver's Guide Vancouver Island South. Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.
ISBN 1-895811-88-0

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