Les Escoumins

This is shore diving from a base. Québec Subaquatique runs the dive base at the CDMM, where walkways, a trail and concrete stairs take divers into the water, an exception on a coastline that is mostly steep rock. The Quai des Pilotes, Anse-à-Joe and Paradis Marin are other shore entries; Paradis Marin sits halfway to Les Bergeronnes, where Explos-Nature keeps a dive school alongside its education and research camp. The base keeps a fixed schedule and is open from May to October only.

Underwater the ground is rock, covered in pink encrusting algae and densely settled with anemones and urchins. Visibility can reach 15 m, and a mooring cable at 5 m serves as an underwater landmark. At the Quai des Pilotes, Atlantic wolffish tuck into small caves in the rock. Straight out from the entry at the pilots' wharf, the Bergeronne Trader lies at 40 m (133 ft), stripped to its frame, part of its deck and its large engine. Diving at Les Escoumins takes place inside the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park.

The sites are generally sheltered but all of them feel the current and the tide, and at Anse-à-Joe the tidal stream is strong enough that dives are timed for slack water. Water between -1 and 8 °C (30 and 46 °F) calls for a drysuit, or a wetsuit of at least 14 mm with hood, boots and gloves. The sites are open to every level, ideally with a buddy who knows them or a local guide, but the Bergeronne Trader is reserved for advanced divers used to these conditions.