Puget Sound · United States · Wall
Colvos Passage Marine Preserve
A creviced rock wall with resident wolf eels and octopus
Area photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0
A shore dive off Sunrise Beach Park on the Gig Harbor side of Colvos Passage, built around a creviced rock wall that runs along the shoreline in roughly 9 to 18 metres of water. It is a marine preserve area, and the animal list shows it: wolf eels used to divers, giant Pacific octopus, lingcod and three rockfish species on the same stretch of rock.
Also known as Sunrise Beach Park.
Where it is and how deep
47.3478° N, 122.5583° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
Gear up at the park and walk in. The feature you are looking for runs parallel to the beach: a rugged rock wall about 8 m high (25 ft), roughly 61 m long (200 ft), sitting in about 30 to 60 feet (up to 18 m) of water, so the dive is an out-and-back along a single structure rather than a navigation problem. Colvos Passage does not slack the way the rest of Puget Sound does, so check which way the water is moving before you leave the beach and take the first leg into it.
Work the wall slowly and look into the crevices. Wolf eels here are used to divers, and giant Pacific octopus hold dens in the same rock. Copper, brown and quillback rockfish sit off the face with lingcod and greenlings; ratfish, rock sole and starry flounder are on the list too, and the rock itself carries sculpins, green sea urchins, scallops, sea stars, warbonnets, gunnels and nudibranchs. Turn at the end of the wall and search the return leg at a shallower height.
Marine life and season
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Puget Sound: Oct–Mar gives the clearest water once the plankton dies back; summer blooms can cut visibility to a few metres.
Know before you go
- Colvos Passage runs a permanent northbound current instead of reversing with the tide, so there is no reliable slack: read the tide tables, check the flow at the entry and swim into it.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Colvos Passage preserve dive?+
The creviced rock wall that defines the site lies in about 30 to 60 feet of water, roughly 9 to 18 metres, and the dive is worked along that wall from a shore entry at Sunrise Beach Park.
What will I see at Colvos Passage Marine Preserve?+
Wolf eels and giant Pacific octopus are the draw. The rock also holds copper, brown and quillback rockfish, lingcod, greenlings, ratfish, rock sole, starry flounder, sculpins, green sea urchins, scallops, sea stars, warbonnets, gunnels and nudibranchs.
Sources
- Gig Harbor — Wikivoyage
- Diving in the United States — Wikivoyage
- Sunrise Beach Park, Washington — Zentacle
- Colvos Passage — Wikipedia
More dive sites in Puget Sound
The most popular diving location in Seattle, entered off the beach
The large tugboat Triumph, and very large ling cod on the structures
Artificial reef
Rockfish, greenling and giant anemones packed onto revetment boulders
Artificial reef
Old Hood Canal Bridge slabs and I-beams turned into fish habitat
Wolf eels in the rock on the north and south walls
Wreck
A 21-metre wooden hull (70 feet) under a field of white plumose anemones
Similar dives elsewhere
A coral-covered fjord wall, 80 m out from the jetty
Sea stacks five minutes from port: a wall from 4 m to 20 m, an arch and a swim-through
Sand pools at 8 m under a wall worked from 15 up to 9 m
Alphonse's macro wall, all of it inside 16 m