Scuba Diving Bowyer Island British Columbia

Enjoy a relaxing dive along the reefs of Bowyer Island in Howe Sound, British Columbia. Diver Greg McCracken observes a jellyfish undulating through blue green winter waters above snow white plumos anemone gardens.
Scuba diving in British Columbia is a magnificent adventure with an abundance and diversity of marine life found nowhere else in the world!
Nutrient rich waters filled with plankton provide food for an incredibly rich marine ecosystem that thrives in these current swept emerald waters.
Animals here grow big! Wide ranging species of colourful anemones, nudibranchs, sponges, Giant Pacific Octopus, Wolf Eels and a variety of species of Rockfish just to name a few of the regular inhabitants that make home on rocky invertebrate covered reefs and underwater canyons in this natural fjord system called Howe Sound.
Howe Sound is also known for marine mammals such as dolphins and whales.
Kelp forests a once common and integral part of the healthy marine ecosystem which provide refuge for many young species of animals in these waters are in recent years succumbing to ever growing populations of green sea urchins. This alone has changed the underwater landscape of many known reefs dramatically since their main predator, the Giant Sunflower Star was decimated by sea star wasting disease that was first reported in 2013 by scuba divers. Divers noticed many sea star species and other echinoderms were wasting away and disappearing (almost appeared to be melting into a “goo-like”consistency) . Urchin populations have exploded with a chain reaction affecting many other species as a result.
For more information about marine life in Howe Sound please check out the Marine Life Sanctuaries Society of British Columbia (MLSSBC), the Vancouver Aquarium, or contact Ocean Quest Dive Centre.
www.diveoceanquest.com
www.mlssbc.com
www.vanaqua.org
Video by: Deirdre Forbes McCracken
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