This is the island just offshore from Cottam Point in the Nanoose/Parksville area. The channel between the island and Cottam Point is only 1/2-kilometer wide. The marine chart shows a drop to about 150 feet deep on the tip of the island facing Cottam Point. I heard a report of good visibility in the area so I drove up with my boat on the roof for a couple of dives(June 24, 2014). I launched at the Beachcomber Marina in Northwest Bay and went the 2 kilometers to Mistaken Island. I anchored in the shallows in a tiny bay near the Southern tip. The island is privately-owned so I didn't go above the high tide line. In the shallows visibility was about 10'. The bottom leading out of the bay was a sandy slope with lots of tube-dwelling anemones. Several giant nudibranchs were slowly attacking them. There was a stepping rocky slope on my left as I swam out. I followed it down into the channel. Visibility steadily improved as I went deeper. By the time I reached 60' deep, visibility was around 80'. The stepping wall had a few boot sponges and crimson anemones on it. I followed the wall East. There were several small cloud sponges on the wall and farther along, the rock seemed to be covered with crimson anemones. I saw a cable covered with plumose and crimson anemones running down the wall (the chart shows a power cable here). I saw a tiger rockfish near the cable. I followed it down to the base of the wall about 110' deep. This was a rocky reef/boulder slope going deeper down into the channel. There was a yelloweye rockfish next to the tiger rockfish and a school of quillback rockfish hovered over them. I was focused on taking pictures of the yelloweye/tiger rockfish so I didn't notice much else around them. Later, while looking closely at the pictures I noticed 3 gorgonian corals a few inches tall at the base of the wall. I've never heard of gorgonian corals on the Vancouver Island side of the Strait of Georgia. Anyway, at the time I didn't notice them and I swam back up the wall a bit and continued to swim along it. I reached an area where the wall was covered with a cascade of large, white plumose anemones. There were areas nearby covered with tiny white anemones. I didn't want to build up too much nitrogen so I swam up to the top of the wall at 40-60' deep. Here there were rocky steps and ledges. There wasn't as much life on the rocks up here, but there were large urchins, some painted anemones and an area covered with zoanthids. Blackeye gobies were everywhere I looked. I don't think I've ever seen so many. After an impatient break on the surface I did a second dive to take some video. I saw a few juvenile yelloweye rockfish on the wall and some small, pink clumps of branching hydrocoral like the kind I used to see at Orlebar Point on Gabriola Island. Actually, this wall reminds me of Orlebar Point without the sandstone. I even think that this wall at Mistaken Island has a greater variety and concentration of invertebrates compared to Orlebar. I'm already planning on coming back as soon as possible to try and have a better look at those gorgonian corals.
