 Duncan
Rock
Description
Duncan Rock is an exposed
pinnacle located in the mouth of Juan De Fuca Strait, just
northwest of Tatoosh Island off Cape Flattery on the Olympic
Peninsula. This site is quite exposed to the open ocean, and
as such can only be dived when the tides, weather, and current
are all just right. Surface conditions can get pretty brutal
out here! Diving during anything less than optimal conditions
can be VERY dangerous. Don't do it! However, given good weather
(no wind and minimal ocean swells) this site can be dived
very safely and will reward those who are adventurous enough
to make the journey. The opportunity for diving is between
the flood and ebb tides, during the slack period when there
is the least amount of current. Depths range from 40 feet
to 130 feet and beyond. The visibility is variable, topping
out at about 60 feet on the best days. This is an advanced
dive site for experienced divers only, and must be accessed
by boat.
The dive site itself encompasses well over
a hundred square yards of steep walls, deep canyons, and innumerable
crevices, ledges, and boulders. The geography here is varied
and exciting, but what's most amazing about this site is that
every square inch of rock is encrusted with colorful life.
It seems there are invertebrates of every kind. The abundance
and diversity of life is staggering! There's so much life
it's impossible to take it all in. Cruising along the rocks
your attention is constantly being drawn toward something
colorful and unusual. There are vibrantly colored pink and
yellow hydrocorals along with sponges, anemones, seastars,
tunicates, feather duster tube worms, immense colonies of
fist-sized barnacles and gigantic mussels. There are schools
of rockfish and perch, as well as lingcod, cabazon and all
the other usual PNW fishes. And of course there are wolf eels
and octopii! For challenge, adventure, and diversity and abundance
of marine life there is simply no better Pacific Northwest
dive site on the United States side of the U.S.-Canadian border!
Location
Olympic Peninsula
Other Interesting Information
Check out a video
featuring this dive site!
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