Horseshoe Bay & Howe Sound · Canada · Artificial reef
Porteau Cove
Purpose-sunk ships, a tire reef and an H-beam jungle gym off one beach
Photo: ~riley · CC BY-SA 4.0
Porteau Cove Provincial Park on the Sea-to-Sky shore of Howe Sound is a shore dive over a curated field of artificial reefs. Purpose-sunk steel and wooden vessels, a tire reef, concrete blocks and a frame of metal H-beams sit at modest depths that leave plenty of bottom time.
Also known as Porteau Cove Provincial Park.
Where it is and how deep
49.5572° N, 123.2359° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The reef structures lie between 8 and 15 m (25–50 ft): steel hulls that are still mostly intact, wooden ones now badly broken down, a tire reef, heaps of concrete blocks and columns, and a jungle gym of metal H-beams. Visibility is sometimes low, and the shallow, structure-rich bottom turns into long dives.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Horseshoe Bay & Howe Sound: Dived year-round; the water is clearest in late fall and winter, while spring and summer plankton blooms can cut visibility.
Know before you go
- Wind of 15 knots or more, above all from the west or north, makes the entry rough; divers postpone the site to a calmer day.
Photos from Porteau Cove
Kyla Duhamel from Saskatoon, Canada · CC BY 2.0
Dive videos
Scuba diving the Wrecks at Porteau Cove, British Columbia Canada. September 1, 2013 · Richard van Liempt on YouTube
Sources
- Howe Sound — Divers Alert Network
- Porteau Cove Provincial Park — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- A diver in a red and black drysuit carries fins and a side-slung tank down a concrete ramp beside rocky water by ~riley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Calm blue water below forested mountains with snow-capped peaks under a blue sky by Kyla Duhamel from Saskatoon, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Horseshoe Bay & Howe Sound
Wreck
A whole Annapolis-class destroyer sitting upright in a sheltered bay
A field of white plumose anemones spilling over a fjord wall's edge
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