Finn Beach is a popular Nanaimo spot for dive classes since it's a calm, protected bay with lots of parking near the water. It's part of Neck Point Park. Usually when I dive at Neck Point park, I sign out a key at the parks office which allows me to drive to the tip of the point which I think is the best dive spot in the park. I've never dove at Finn Beach before. Since it's a shallow, protected spot, I assumed it was pretty uninteresting compared to other Nanaimo-area dive sites. I was in Nanaimo on Aug. 25, 2015 and I wanted to dive a spot  I've never been before so I came here to see what it was like. I swam out along the North side of the bay. In the shallows, the bottom was a gently-sloping plain of small, broken rocks. As I continued to swim out the small rocks sloped down to about 20' deep into the bay. This slope gradually deepened as I swam farther out. Most of this slope was covered with bottom kelp and there wasn't much to see except for lots of blackeye gobies and a few small rockfish. Visibility was 10-15' in the shallows and 30' below 30' deep. I swam for quite a while out past the entrance to the bay. Eventually there were some larger rocky reefs at the base of the slope. There still wasn't much marine life. I saw a couple of Irish lords and there were lots of nudibranchs out on the sand (by now the base of the slope was 50-60' deep). I saw one of the largest lion's mane jellies I've ever seen out over the sand. There were a few urchins and an octopus in a crack.
         It was enjoyable to be swimming around underwater of course, but this is probably the most uninteresting spot I've been to yet in the Nanaimo area. At least I can say I've been here, but I don't think I'll be back.
broken rocks in the shallows
rocks in the shallows
small rock slope in the shallows
kelp greenling on bottom kelp
bottom kelp covering a rocky reef
dead tree
Irish lord on the dead tree
Irish lord
lion's mane
lion's mane
lion's mane
lion's mane
lion's mane
nudibranchs on the sand
nudibranchs
nudibranchs
nudibranch
nudibranchs
low, rocky reefs 50-60' deep
kelp greenling and an octopus den
octopus in a den
octopus in a den
octopus in a den
reef covered in bottom kelp
Irish lord
Irish lord
Irish lord
Irish lord
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