mcloughlinpoint7

I came back to McLoughlin Point on April 27, 2025 to see how the life on the sewer outfall was doing. I was here the day before (not diving, but just looking down from shore) and the visibility was the best I've ever seen here. I showed up the next day hoping for a dive in 20'+ visibility, but unfortunately it was only 10' today. It was a very low tide so all the murky water from in the harbour must have drained out over this site.

I snorkeled out on the surface to the start of the boulder pile that covers the first part of the outfall pipe. When I descended, the first thing I saw was the school of black rockfish that hangs around over the boulders.

I started swimming out along the East side of the boulder pile. These shallower depths (30-45' deep) didn't seem much different than they did in the last couple of years. The boulders were still very silty with not much invertebrate life on them. There were a few plumose anemones and a fish-eating anemone, but mostly there were brown, silty diatoms and reddish seaweed. As I swam farther, I started to see lots of swimming scallops. The current today was the strongest I've ever felt here. I could swim against it, but it took some effort. This current seemed to be flowing straight out of the harbour away from shore. I checked the Victoria tide table for my previous dives here and coincidentally, they were all during a rising tide when I'd assume the current would be flowing into the harbour. Today was also a rising tide, but the current was still flowing outwards. Maybe I don't understand fluid mechanics, but this still seems weird to me.

The current seemed to be getting stronger the farther I swam out. I decided to swim up over the boulder mound and see if it was weaker on the other side. It was (although still stronger than I've felt here before), so I continued to swim out on this "sheltered" West side. There were lots of canary rockfish on the sand at the base of the boulders. On the boulder pile I saw black, yellowtail, Puget Sound, copper, quillback and brown rockfish. Most of them were older than this outfall so they must have migrated in from elsewhere. I did see several juveniles as well. There were also lots of lingcod and some kelp greenlings. The farther out I swam, there were more plumose anemones and lots of swimming scallops. The scallops were covering many of the boulders.

I made it to where the boulder pile ends (around 60' deep) and the exposed outfall pipe continues out. Since the current was so strong, I only swam out for a few sections of pipe. I could see that there were lots more plumose anemones on it compared to last year. As a reminder of the current, the water was full of big clumps of various kinds of seaweed drifting out of the harbour.