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July 31, 2010
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While there are some great boat dives that are not to be missed up here, most people who start diving in Alaska will start with shore entries. Take advantage of the fact by swimming along the bottom all the way out of the water, instead of ascending vertically along a line. It's a good way to guarantee a gradual ascent, and to automatically build a safety stop into your dive plan without having to stay in one place for 3 minutes.
Whittier
Whittier is a scuzzy little town, but it is very close to Anchorage, and therefore is popular for diving. It is on the far side of a traffic-managed, one lane railroad tunnel, so plan a bit. In the summer, the tunnel opens for traffic to Whittier every hour on the hour in the morning. Do not get there late, or you'll be diving an hour later than you intended.
Once you get in to Whittier, you'll see what I mean about it being scuzzy. It's a great town to leave for fishing or diving. Not a town people come to, but a great town to have come from.
Seasons
In winter, the prevailing winds in Seward make the diving treacherous. Most people dive Whittier from late fall through spring. By May, most divers are so sick of Smitty's Cove (see below) that if they never see its mucky bottom again it will be too soon. Nonetheless, they're all back come fall. The worst day of diving beats the best day of.. not diving.
Smitty's Cove - Shore Dives
The shore diving from Whittier itself can be uninspiring. There is a lot to see your first time out, but it is all man-made. You won't see a ton of life (don't get me wrong, you'll see a bit - there is a beautiful ling cod living in one area just about 100 yards from the most common entry, for instance, and a big octopus nearby), but there is a sunken airplane, some boats, a railroad car, the remains of a bridge, etc. All of this is near the most common entry, at Smitty's Cove. Smitty's is a pretty good place to dive for training. It is well-known, and safe. It is also well-trodden - everyone knows Smitty's and what to find there. This can make it pretty dull. (It can also make it silty. The bottom in the Cove alternates between gravel and silty mud. It doesn't take many first-time divers to silt it up and send your viz right to Davey Jones' locker.)
One caveat to diving Smitty's - the boat launch that serves as the primary entry is private. The woman who owns and manages it charges for parking. I believe current rates are $10/day/car + $5/day/passenger. In theory, this usury is to pay for the wonderful warming hut at the edge of the parking lot, which is kept stocked with bottled water, tea, hot chocolate and the like. In practice, no warming hut can make up for the uninspiring dives. Many prefer dry weekends to yet another dive at Smitty's with its associated expense and mucky bottom.
Recently, in an effort to bring some fish back to Whittier, various lumps of concrete have been dropped into the drink some distance from Smitty's. This is Alaska's answer to an artificial reef (no 500 foot boats for us, sir!). They do not, yet, have much life to speak of, but stay tuned - this will change.
Features
You can see from the primitive map, above, where most of the goodies in the cove live. There are lines, and the map mostly just maps the lines.
- Ramp - the ramp is the main entry point (you could hike over the rocks, but why?). It goes down to about 18' of water at high tide.
- Barge - all that is left of the barge is a ton of debris. About 25 fsw.
- Box - the starting point of most training dives in Smitty's. 30-35 fsw.
- Shrimp - I've heard tell about this shrimp pod. Never bothered to check it out, m'self.
- Debris - some metal debris. There are some critters hiding out inside. Around 70 fsw.
- Reef pyramids - I haven't added these to the map, yet, but they are just east and west of the debris pile, in about 70 fsw. If you follow the contour of the sea floor from the debris (staying at a constant depth) you'll run into them.
- Plane - I dove this twice in January 2007, and it had changed substantially between the two dives. About 45 fsw.
- Tanker - Lots of fun stuff hiding around here - look for the old boot, for instance, that appears to be about a size 17.
- Reef balls - These are all clumped together in about 55 fsw, west of the line between the plane and the tanker.
- Crane - In about 85 fsw. I love the crane. There is an old ling cod who lives inside, and there's always at least one other fun critter in the area. When the viz is good on the crane you know the dive, and the day, is going to be outstanding.
Perry Island and Culross Passage - Boat Dives
On the other hand, if you are willing to travel some distance away from Whittier toward the open ocean, you can start to see some really interesting sea life at reasonable recreational depths.
Just a few weekends ago, I dove a site off Perry Island. It wasn't astonishing, but it had life more like Seward than like Smitty's Cove. Some of it was quite beautiful, including some gorgeous sea cucumbers, and anemones. We found most of the best life on various rock faces between 90 and 110 fsw, but there were goodies waiting for us at our 57' deep stop, too - some pretty seaweed, and sea stars.
For the second dive, we chose a neat little spot in Culross Passage. The area has great viz, particularly if you stay near the wall on the far side, away from boat traffic. Good rocks hide some rich wildlife, including rock fish, various stars, cucumbers, and some bottom fish (I found a young flounder and some sole hiding out in plain sight, for instance). Really a great dive.
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