Scuba Diving in Nanaimo

If it's true that each city has a word to sum up its essence, then Nanaimo's word is surely DIVING. The preoccupation Nanaimo has with its #1 recreational activity is obvious upon entering downtown, where marine muralists have rendered sides of buildings into colorful scuba scenes inspiring visitors to dive in and enjoy the sea in all it's glory.

Nanaimo Skyline
Nanaimo Skyline by Braveheart.

Jacques Cousteau once proclaimed the area around Vancouver Island and Nanaimo as “the best temperate water diving in the world, second only to the Red Sea”. His authoritative assertion promptly sparked great interest in the region, an area already infused with a passion for diving. Since then, Nanaimo has grown into a scuba diver's mecca.

Rodale's Scuba Diving (the most popular scuba diving magazine in circulation) polls over 6000 subscribers a year to ask where their top scuba destination is, and for 3 years the answer has been British Columbia. If asked to narrow down their choice it seems apparent most would answer Nanaimo. No place in BC has a better combination of dive site diversity and community enthusiasm like this “seanic” port city does. Dive enthusiasts from around the world come to Nanaimo to take advantage of year round diving and stellar dive-oriented tourism, which avidly supports continued exploration of thriving kelp forests, shallow reefs, deep plunging walls, inspiring rock formations and a world renowned artificial reef system.

Artificial Reefs

Human-made reefs go way back in the our seafaring history. In ancient times, they were used to promote naval prowess and abundant kelp harvests, but modern use of large scrap materials (after they have been decontaminated) such as decommissioned ships, buses, trains, and subway cars is mostly for the purpose of marine preservation. In some cases, the aim has been to create a better surfing environment, but these efforts have met with little success.

Regardless of how artificial reefs are constructed the ultimate goal is to create a solid surface upon which algae, barnacles, coral, and oysters can adhere, thus attracting fish into a burgeoning web of life. These microcosms are of foremost interest to scuba divers as their colors, textures and inherent mystery are the key components to an amazing underwater adventure.

The following three artificial reefs, each found within 15 minutes of Nanaimo, make up the largest human-made reef system in the world. They offer a tremendous variety of sea life including Wolf Eels, Giant Pacific Octopuses, giant Cloud and Boot Sponges, and Yellow-edged Cadlina.

HMCS Saskatchewan

The creation of human-made reefs to promote aquaculture and interest in diving first began in Nanaimo in 1997 with the sinking of the HMCS Saskatchewan naval destroyer. This deliberate shipwreck has attracted well over 100,000 divers since that momentous day in June. She's 366 feet long and located near the western side of Snake Island, close to downtown Nanaimo. The vessel sank nearly upright and rests 130 feet down, on the sandy bottom of the Georgia Straight. Even advanced divers don't go down that far down, they stick to exploring the portion of the Saskatchewan located at about 90 feet, where the fore and aft decks lay. Here in the silence scuba divers witness a grave teeming with sea life, colorfully inhabiting every nook and cranny of a war vessel that traveled the equivalent of 8 times around the world. The paradox is striking and part of the charm that keeps divers coming back in droves.

HMCS Cape Breton

Located only 300 feet away from the HMCS Saskatchewan, the HMCS Cape Breton artificial reef is known as the signature dive in BC - which is saying a lot since there are countless dive sites on the west coast of Canada! The ship was cleared of contaminants in preparation for becoming a permanent fixture on the ocean floor, and was sunk in 2002 making it the second artificial reef in Nanaimo, and the second largest artificial reef in the world. The top of the vessel is 40 feet below the surface, but the engine room, an eerie cave missing the engine, is 138 feet beneath the surface of the water. Way down there in the quiet of the deep sea, if sand gets stirred up it can be like getting caught in a storm. For this reason, the lower portion of the Cape Breton is suitable for advanced divers only.

Both naval vessels are located near Snake Island, a bird sanctuary and refuge for hundreds of curious and friendly Harbor Seals.

The RivTow

The 157 foot RivTow Lion is the newest artificial reef in Nanaimo and considered ideal for beginner divers. The vessel lays in shallow waters near Newcastle Island at the bottom of Departure Bay, and her bulk is between 60 - 80 feet. This deep sea rescue tug originally started out in 1940 serving as part of a fleet of tugboats whose mission it was to tow damaged ships across the North Atlantic during WW2. She retired in 1966 where her new job towing log booms lasted for 17 years. Diving the RivTow is considered suitable for novice divers because her main areas of interests, the aft main deck and the bridge windows, are only 45 feet beneath the water's surface. When water clarity is good (outside the summer season) the entire boat becomes visible at about 10 feet. Bring your underwater camera, the first glimpse of the RivTow presents a perfect photo opportunity... images that will be VERY impressive to friends and family!

Nanaimo Harbour

A Thriving
Dive Community

It takes more than natural endowments to bring about a healthy artificial reef. Skillful coordination at all stages has been crucial to the incredible success of the human-made reef system in Nanaimo. Its strong dive community is centered around the award winning Nanaimo Dive Association, an affiliation of pro divers, diving teachers, and dive aficionados, who, with the support of local businesses, have made Nanaimo's temperate water play land a favorite for divers everywhere. Local support of Nanaimo's diving culture manifests in many ways including a commitment to the expansion of the amount of foreshore used in Nanaimo for marine parks, to more and more shore amenities geared specifically for divers, to ongoing Wolf Eel conservation efforts, and to the creation of safer mooring buoys. Keeping divers safe is of utmost importance in the mandate of the NDA, as is ensuring spear fishing and harvesting policies are rigidly adhered to. With that said, they also recognize that scuba diving is a hobby and that the goal is to have fun, relax and explore.

Year Round Diving

Want to have some fun in the great outdoors at some point this year? The best part about planning a scuba holiday in Nanaimo is not being limited by seasons. The diving is good here 365 days a year, it has plenty of dive friendly waterfront hotels and restaurants, and is an ideal location for dive instruction vacations, but diving is not all there is to do in this blessed place. The city is a main port for BC Ferries and is centrally located on Vancouver Island. Smart travelers plan combined holidays using Nanaimo as a launching pad for excursions such as whale watching in the spring, skiing Mt. Washington in the winter, fishing, kayaking and vineyard touring in the summer, or golfing up and down the island in the autumn when crowds have died down and the weather is sublime.

Whether you choose to make diving Nanaimo's artificial reef system your main vacation destination, or the stop over to and from other activities on Vancouver Island, one thing is for sure... you'll be glad you did.

Also see: Vancouver Diving