The Chain Islets are a maze of reefs, rocks and small islands in the Oak Bay area. They're all part of the Oak Bay Islands Ecological Reserve. I went out from the Cattle Point boat launch on June 30, 2009. The whole area is relatively shallow (mostly less than 60 feet deep), so I didn't expect to see more than kelp at this time of year, but I figured it would be interesting to visit anyway. The islets were full of seals, eagles, cormorants and other birds. I chose a spot on the chart that seemed to drop down steeply close to a sheltered spot where I could anchor my Zodiac. There can be 3-5 knots of current around the Chain Islets so I didn't want to have to swim too far out away from where I started. There was a tiny, shallow bay (more like an indent) on the Northern-most islet where I anchored my boat about 3 feet deep. The bare-rock islet was full of gulls and gull droppings. I think these islets are nesting spots and I don't know if their Ecological Reserve status allows people to walk all over them so I didn't land, but stayed in the water next to the boat to put on my stuff. I was soon discovered by swarms of fearless flies that, I assume, live off the droppings. I had to put on my gear and duck underwater quickly to escape. I swam down through the bull kelp forest (I didn't see any schools of fish in it) to where the chart showed the drop. Below the kelp forest, I just saw more kelp covering what I assume would be rock sloping down deeper. I resigned myself to a "didn't see much except for kelp" summer dive, but then I saw some white shapes farther along the slope. They were plumose anemones and I assumed there would just be a few, but then I realised that the whole reef was covered with them. Visibility was about 15-20 feet and I could see them clustered from about 35-50 feet deep where the reef met a flat, sand-rock bottom. I swam along the reef until my air supply made me turn around and I never came to the end of them. Other than the plumose anemones, there wasn't a lot of stuff on the rocks. They seemed pretty silty. There were a few patches of giant barnacles, sponge, cup corals, etc., but I would guess that this reef doesn't get crazy current. There were the usual rockfish (copper/quillback), lots of urchins and sunflower stars. The visibility wasn't great, but I could still see the bull kelp near the top of the reef "blowing" in the mild current above the anemones. I swam back up through the bull kelp to my boat. I saw several seals splashing around on the surface above where I was diving, but I didn't see any underwater. The flies had decided to colonise my boat and they harassed me all the way back to Cattle Point. Overall, I think this is a great diving area. I was expecting a bit more current-swept colour, but the endless avenue of anemones was a nice surprise. There's a huge number and variety of spots to try out around these islets and the rich variety of wildlife on the surface makes you feel like there are plenty of surprises waiting underwater as well.
