Dive Review of Port Hole Dive Charters in
The Continental USA/Neah Bay, Washington

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Port Hole Dive Charters, Sep, 2004, by LeRoy Anderson, Utah, USA ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports). Report 1317.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Over Labor Day weekend, I had the pleasure of diving in the Neah Bay area in Washington state. This area, for me, represents what is the most adventurous and beautiful diving I've seen in the continental waters of the USA. Yet it is a relatively unknown area, other than to a few intrepid pacific northwest divers. It truly deserves more notoriety. I knew I was in for a treat as we motored out to Duncan Rock, with clouds and mist coming down from forested cliffs, and breathtaking surf crashing into seastacks and coastal rocks. On our first dive at Tatoosh Island, I was impressed by the underwater topography of ravines, boulders, along with the rather large anemonies and starfish. Several really huge sea lions joined our dive, and made for a very entertaining situation. A shore dive at the Seiku jetty was remarkable for extremely thick kelp forests which we would bottom crawl through (like bushwhacking through a jungle) among the boulders, seeing huge lingcod and seeing more nudibranchs of incredible size and color than I've seen anywhere. The kelp here is amazing, with both bull kelp and giant kelp species existing alongside one another. At third beach, another exiting dive site, schools of seabass and huge bottom fish, made for an entertaining dive. The best site, Waadah Island Fingers, was remarkable for wolf eels, red irish lords, hard coral, soft coral, really dense groups of anenomies, more sea lions, and lots more really healthy and large nudibranchs. This was a really sporty area with surge also, riding a twenty foot surge back and forth fifty feet deep was more surge than I've ever seen, and really a rush. It was easy to get out of the surge by going deeper or going between the remarkable canyons or ravines that are present here. A naturalist's paradise. The only negative? tons of fishermen and spearfishermen are for some reason allowed here and view this area as one of the best spearfishing sites around, which it probably is, for now. Sadly, I think this area is being dramatically overfished with many boats coming in to the docks with wheelbarrows full of bottom fish and sea bass. I was glad to be able to see this area while it still retains some amount of splendor, as the fish population seems to be in the process of extermination. Anybody out there know how to get a marine underwater park similar to the one at Edmonds established in the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary, say one surrounding the fingers at Waadah Island? It would be nice if a small remnant of this area could be preserved!
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Palau, Grand & Little Cayman, Channel Islands, Cozumel, Akumal, Port Hardy British Columbia, Florida Keys, Hawaii (Kauai and Ni'ihau), Papua New Guinea.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	cloudy	Seas	currents
Water Temp	45-50°F / 7-10°C	Wetsuit Thickness	7
Water Visibility	15-30 Ft/ 5-9 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	None really.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	No real accomodations for photographers, you are on your own.

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Dive Review of Port Hole Dive Charters in The Continental USA/Neah Bay, Washington

Port Hole Dive Charters, Sep, 2004,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Port Hole Dive Charters in
The Continental USA/Neah Bay, Washington