This is a small park near Harling Point. At the end of Lorne Terrace, there's room for 3 cars to park and a short trail/stairs to a pebble beach. This spot has never interested me diving-wise since the marine chart shows a shallow, non-steep area stretching out from shore. lately I've been looking at a Natural Resources Canada sidescan sonar image of the area and it showed a rocky area sticking out from shore. The marine chart shows 3 knots of current flowing past the shore here from Enterprise Channel. I thought I'd go for a dive here after all and see if the combination of strong current and rocky structure would make this an interesting marine-life spot. I came for a look on March 14, 2016.
I swam about 100 meters out of the bay. The bottom was pink coralline algae-encrusted boulders and sand. Near shore I saw some kind of large free-swimming worm. At the entrance to the bay, there was a bed of eelgrass. Visibility was 10-15'.
Outside the bay the bottom was a mostly-flat area with small rocky reefs, boulders and sand. Near shore, there was a steep rock slope dropping down from the surface. The bottom here was around 15' deep. Most of the rocks were covered with stalked kelp. The only fish I saw were tube snouts. The ebbing current was mostly too strong to swim against so I swam/pulled myself along the sand and headed into it. At the base of the rock slope there was a large tangled mass of plastic pipe, wire mesh and chain. I think this was a kind of heat-exchange system for heating or cooling of a house on shore. Given the current and the waves here, this doesn't seem like a good spot for it. Some of the pipes led up the rocks towards shore.
A sealion swam past, but with the low visibility, it was too far away for a clear picture:
I saw a low, rock reef heading out farther from shore so I pulled myself along next to it. I think this is one of the rocky areas that the sidescan image shows sticking out from shore. Despite the strong current, there really wasn't much invertebrate life on it. There were a few boulders on the sand next to the reef with a hint of colourful sponge. The deepest I made it was 32 feet deep. I think this area isn't deep enough to see lots of colourful high-current marine life. I turned around and flew back with the current and swam back into the bay. Considering the risks of the current, I don't think this place is worth diving again.
