Scuba Diving Canada
Diving Canada articles, reviews, and reports from Undercurrent
Diving Canada Overview
This is dry suit country. If you can take the cold water, the rewards include an incredible array of filter feeders and marine life that you'll never dive with in warm waters.
Vancouver Island, reachable by air or ferry from Seattle or Vancouver, BC, is a remarkable wilderness destination, both on land and in the water. A traveler may encounter anything from eagles to orcas, sea lions to bears, while diving with a remarkable range of critters such as sea lions, seals, wolf eels and giant Pacific octopuses. There are dive resorts in the Campbell River area, and a few liveaboards such as the well-respected Nautilus Explorer plie these waters. Diving is controlled by the enormous tides that dictate when and where the water is moving, so choosing an experience operator is important.
Undercurrent readers have reported on other Western Canada dive operations located on Victoria Island and in Whitehorse (Yukon Territory), plus St. Albert and Edmonton (Alberta).
Wreck diving is the big draw in Lake Ontario. Truly hardy souls can try ice diving at Baffin Island near the Arctic Circle. There's some diving off the Eastern provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Canada Seasonal Dive Planner
Most British Columbia diving takes place from late Spring to early Fall. The Nautilus Explorer, for instance, heads to Mexico after August. In Nova Scotia, the Gulf Stream warms the ocean surface to 64° F in summer.
Diving Canada Feature Articles and Reader Reports
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For Undercurrent Online Members |
Canada Dive Reviews
from our Instant Reader Reports |
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All Availble to Undercurrent Online
Members; Some Publicly Available as Indicated
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Diving Canada Articles - Land Based
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Cedar Beach Ocean Lodge, B.C., Canada  , gourmet heaven for cold-water divers, 2/13 |
| Rendezvous Dive Adventures, British Columbia, a laid-back idyll on Vancouver Island for cold-water divers, 2/12 |
| Browning Pass Hideaway, British Columbia, profusion of life in majestic yet kooky setting, 11/10 |
Available to the Public |
| Bahamas, B.V.I., Ontario, Roatan…, the good, bad and ugly in dive resorts, boats and service, 10/08 |
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Canada Dive Reviews
from our Travelin' Divers' Chapbooks |
Editor's Book Picks for Scuba Diving Canada
The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the
world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com;
just follow the links. -- BD
Beneath Cold Seas: The Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest
by David Hall
It's hard enough to take a first-rate photo of reef life in the best of conditions. Try doing it in murky, bone-numbingly cold water while wearing a dry suit with 40-plus pounds of weights around your waist, and thick, insulating gloves that make it hard to use the camera controls. That's what David Hall had to endure while photographing in Canadian waters, but those physical disadvantages make Beneath Cold Seas all the more amazing.
Hall's book successfully disputes the belief that cold-water reefs are drab and dismal. He has regularly photographed the world's most beautiful dive spots for major magazines from National Geographic to Time. While Hall's shots are taken entirely at Browning Passage in British Columbia, the reef life he shoots resides along the Pacific Coast, from Northern California up to Alaska, and they are as diverse and spectacular as any creature in Raja Ampat or Fiji.
Click here to buy it at Amazon via our website -- our profits go to save the reefs.
Reef Fish Identification: Baja to Panama
by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach
The latest edition in the popular Paul Humann series of marine life books. The most comprehensive field guide ever compiled for identifying reef fishes from the Gulf of California to the Pacific coast of Panama, including offshore islands. More than 500 photographs of 400 species taken in their natural habitat. The book is dedicated to Baja Legend Alex Kerstitch and includes several of his drawings and photographs. The concise text accompanying each species portrait includes the fish’s common, scientific and family names, size range, description, visually distinctive features, preferred habitat, typical behavior, depth range, and geographical distribution.
Illustrated/Hardcover. 364 pages, Amazon.com price: $27.17.
The Devil's Teeth: a true story of Obsession and Survival among America's Great White Sharks:
by Susan Casey
Perhaps the greatest gathering of great white sharks in the world is at the Farallon islands, 26 miles from San Francisco. Researchers have tracked and studied them for years and at least one diver still collects sea urchins in the midst of their gatherings. Journalist Susan Casey lived on these barren islands to write a fascinating, awe-struck account of the sharks, their amazing behavior, their killing strategies, their long distance travels, and life with the researchers. Click on this Undercurrent link to purchase the 304-page, hardbound, The Devil's Teeth at Amazon.com's best price, and all our proceeds will go to coral reef conservation.
An
American Underwater Odyssey: 50 Dives in 50 States
: by
Charles Ballinger.
Underwater Odyssey is the story of a scuba diving
safari to every state in America. Tired of touring coral reefs, the author embarks
on a year-long quest to discover the incredible assortment of adventure diving
found in our nation's backyard. His dogged determination to follow his dreams
and explore everything from flooded missile sites to abandoned mines should be
an inspiration for any diver. Underwater Odyssey transcends the limits
of a dive guide to reveal the broader adventure that diving provides.
Order
through us, get Amazon.coms best price and some of the profit will be donated
to preserve coral reefs.
There's a Cockroach in My Regulator
by Undercurrent
The Best of Undercurrent: Bizarre and Brilliant True Diving Tales from Thirty Years of Undercurrent.
Shipping now is our brand new, 240-page book filled with the best of the unusual, the entertaining, and the jaw dropping stories Undercurrent has published. They’re true, often unbelievable, and always fascinating. We’re offering it to you now for the special price of just $14.95.
Click here to order.
You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's
Book Picks section.
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