Owing to it's close proximity to Canada's "Wet Coast", it seems only natural that divers from Sunny Alberta would gladly endure a little west coast rain in order to dive in British Columbia's magical Emerald Sea.

By Jett Britnell

It was a marvellous, sunny day as we lay at anchor in the Plumper Island Group. Just as the predive briefing was commencing, I glanced momentarily outside the liveaboard's salon window just in time to see a massive bald eagle swoop down to snatch a salmon from the water. I saw the fish for only an instant before it writhed free of the eagle's razor sharp talons and fell back into the water. Of course, it occurred to me that one never seems to have a camera in hand when Mother Nature reveals herself in such ways.

I focused my attention back to the large white board hanging inside the salon. Our skipper had colourfully sketched out the predive plan. As far as dive briefings go, this one sounded routine enough as he explained that we would be searching for a fish seiner boat that foundered and sank here in the nearby pass about a week earlier. The basic plan called for us to drop into the water up current, and then drift toward the wreck. Since we did not know the wreck's precise location part of the challenge on this dive would be to find the vessel. It was about then that I started to succumb to a mind numbing disorder known as "wreck fever." My sub conscious began asking silly illogical questions like, "Will I need my underwater camera on this dive?" Probably not, I thought, as it might only get in the way.

No sooner had the dive skiff motored into the currentswept passageway than someone shouted, "Dolphins!" Sure enough, a pod of 50 to 60 Pacific whitesided dolphins had entered the far end of the channel. They appeared to be headed straight for us. Ah, they'll veer off, I thought quietly to myself. Within minutes, the dolphins were cavorting around our aluminum skiff and divers began leaping into the water. I held off jumping in myself as I was secretly praying that the dolphins might quickly become bored with the divers and move on. After all, I was empty handed, and we were too far away from the mother ship for me to go back and retrieve my camera system. Suddenly, I arrived at the thundering conclusion that these dolphins were into having some serious playtime. What else could I do but jump in.

Though I have been in the water many times before with Pacific whitesided dolphins, I felt no less enthralled than I did when I made my very first dive with them many years ago. Soaring to within arms reach of the divers, we were seeing as many as 15 to 20 dolphins underwater at one time. After a few passes such as this, I noticed that there was even a baby in their midst swimming ever close to its mother. Of course, in all my previous experiences with these gregarious lags I could not recall seeing as many photo opportunities zoom by me as I did during this particular dive. I could well imagine that the post dive conversation back on board the boat would be just as lively following this impromptu dolphin dive.

All this excitement happened on the second day of a sixday liveaboard dive trip that ultimately took us all the way from Vancouver to the north end of Vancouver Island, and back again. We were diving with a large group of divers who came here from Alberta as part of an organized group charter arranged by Simon Rose of Northwest Scuba, a dive store based in Edmonton, Alberta. I had met Simon earlier in the year when I was in Edmonton to participate as a guest speaker at Divescapes 97. To make a long story short, we agreed at some point during the Divescapes show that we must go diving together sometime so here we were.

The westernmost of Canada's three inland Prairie Provinces, Alberta is often called Sunny Alberta because it enjoys more hours of sunshine per year than any other Canadian province. Riding the crest of an enormous provincial budget surplus and a booming economy in the wake of Premier Ralph Klein's "belttightening" provincial budgets, one could almost think that mostCanadians must envy Albertans. It would seem that about the only thing Albertans can't afford to buy these days is their very own ocean playground. So many divers from Alberta's hard core diving community have been making regular sojourns to neighbouring British Columbia to get their ocean diving fix. Clearly, what British Columbia lacks in oil fields is more than offset by its more than 29,000 kilometres of rugged coastline. Of course, we need not brag about BC's abundant liquid sunshine. But rather than me waxing poetically about what attracted this group of Albertan's to come diving in British Columbia, I asked them to jot down their feelings and impressions on paper. Here in their own words is what a few of them had to say.

Carman Klapstein from Stoney Plain, Alberta wrote... "I originally came diving in BC because of the economical cost. As a new diver, trying to both buy gear and go diving was an important factor. Now, having experienced the vast multitude of life and the independent nature of diving here as compared with warm water locations, I find diving in BC more enjoyable". Erik Young who hails from Duffield, Alberta said, "As far as I'm concerned, BC has the best diving anywhere! The diving is always chal lenging and exciting. I don't have to spend more than a couple of hours on an airplane, change my money to U. S. currency, or check my bunk for cockroaches. I love coming here and will continue to return for the rest of my life".

Dexter and Kochu Rani Dombro travelled from as far afield as Slave Lake, Alberta to dive here. Dexter commented, "I have been luckier than most. Over the years, I have dived the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Bahamas, the Galapagos Islands and the Honduran Bay Islands. But, I keep on coming back to British Columbia as it offers some of the most challenging diving I've ever encountered". Dexter's wife, Kochu, echoed these praises and stated, "The reason I came to dive in BC is because the scenery is quite breathtaking, especially underwater. All the sea life seems bigger and more colourful. . . as if you're looking through a magnifying glass. I know that I will come back again and again for more BC diving because of the diversity that you can find so close to home."

While diving aweinspiring sites like Hunt Rock or Browning Passage never ceases to amaze me, I particularly enjoyed the opportunity this trip provided me to dive at several sites I had never dove before. Chief among them was our deep 150 foot dive on the decaying remains of the wreck of the Gulfstream. This vessel was once a popular southern BC coast passenger ferry until the evening of October 11, 1947 when she struck heavily on Dinner Rock. Off Haddington Island we dived over a massive boulder strewn bottom. These chiselled stones are remnants of a nearby rock quarry where stone was excavated to build the elegant facade of the Parliament Buildings in Victoria. This is a great place to photograph lingcod, as they are quite prevalent and very big too! Just off Texada Island, we plunged over a deep wall at Anderson Island and were simply amazed by the spectacular giant cloud sponge formations we saw there. I had heard before that this was a good spot but it exceeded all expectations.

We covered a lot of coastline in six days and dived wherever the water conditions seemed optimal. And miracle of miracles it didn't actually rain on our trip until after we had completed our last dive. This spirit of adventure always takes me back to those halcyon days of my childhood when we would go snorkelling in the Ottawa River and search for fishing lures. Back then, life was simple, as there were no underwater camera systems to contend with. Umm...on second thought, I think I much prefer diving out here on Canada's "Wet Coast" and splashing into a magical Emerald Sea with a group of exuberant divers that came from Alberta. And you can rest assured that if any Pacific whitesided dolphins happen to show up, my underwater camera will be much closer at hand.

The author would like to thank Sunny Alberta and all its divers for helping to spread the good word about BC diving, and Mike and Mary Anne Lever of Lever Diving for literally "squeezing him" on board the Nautilus VII for a fabulous six day diving adventure.