From departing Debbie Metcalfe’s place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt I knew I had some travelling to do to get to Vancouver, Canada. However I didn’t know I was going to be travelling constantly for over 40 hrs. With a bus to Cairo, 4.30am flight to Frankfurt, 5 hr layover and 10 hr flight to Vancouver that turned into a 17hr flight (A seriously ill passenger needed to be taken to hospital so the flight had tp land in Iceland)!

I was visiting British Columbia to learn more about the artificial reef projects they have been pioneering since the early 1990’s. Artificial reefs are an interest due to the fact that the HMAS Adelaide is to be sunk of my local dive site at Terrigal on  Central Coast of NSW. I have been following the progress for many years along  with my dive club, Terrigal Underwater Group (TUG) and the Central Coast Artificial Reef Project (CCARP). Now confirmed the 138m guided missile frigate it is finally secured and planned to sink in late 2009, I have been looking at future research on the reef with Dr Bill Gladstone from the University of Newcastle.

After a day of rest I was soon volunteering with the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia (ARSBC) to help them prepare their latest project – the HMCS Annapolis. Howie Robbins and Doug Pemberton, the president and VP or the ARSBC took me by boat to the site where they are assisting the preparation of the ship. It is a massive undertaking to prepare the 113 m destroyer for sinking as a dive wreck. First the navy was able to remove all oil, grey water, wring and electronics, this is a timely and costly part of the project but as too is the other preparations that need to be done. With the experienced Wes Roots from Canadian Artificial Reef Consulting and his team heading the operations for preparation, cleaning and salvage. The ARSBC uses additional man power to help prepare the wreck and every weekend members of the ARSBC and the dive community volunteer a hard day’s work dismantling and transporting the multitude of scrap metal that needs to be removed for diver safety. The majority of the aluminium and stainless steel parts, such as beds, cabinets, sinks, pipes and other salvageable materials are carefully dismantled and staged for extraction off the ship and will end up being recycled. This is important, due to the high price of metal and the funds generated go towards paying at least some of the expensive project costs. I had a good day on the Annapolis and got to do some hard work again, it was great to walk around the ship and after preparing it for a day I am very keen to come back and dive it in the future!

The next day, I was able to do my first dive in the eastern pacific. I was taken diving with one of the ARSBC volunteers, David Ryan, we drove up the coast for a couple shore dives. We went to a spot called Porteau cove, this area is a marine park and has several artificial reef structures for divers to explore. Our first dive was on the Nakaya, a 41 m former minesweeper scuttled in 1985. The next dive we explored the chains of tires, hollow concrete piles, concrete blocks and steel H-beams and two smaller wrecks of a sailboat and a dredge tender. These structures coupled with the area being a marine park since 1981, provided opportunity for lots of marine life, including many invertebrates along with large schools of baitfish and plenty of large fish.

With the weather against me for the rest of the week in Vancouver and no chance of getting out diving or partaking in other activities, I decided to take a break and head out east and visit my bother, Tom and his best friend Tyler. They have been doing their own travelling and are currently working at a town called Banff in the Rockies, getting ready for the snow season. This was a spectacular part of the country with huge mountains and pristine rivers surrounding the beautiful town. We went hiking up the mountains and canoeing down the rivers during the day and caught up on good times in the evening.

It was great to have a break for a few days, but I was soon on a ferry out to Vancouver Island. There I was taken on a nice shore dive by a local divemaster, Steve Lloyd from Ocean Explorers Diving. Although there are not as many fish in these cooler waters, the other marine life sure makes up for it. Over the rocks, anemones, seastars, crabs, nudibranchs and urchins are abundant, while over the bare substrate, plumose anemones stick out like little trees and as you swim along, swimming scallops take of in front of you and swim around. To top it off, we were also approached a couple times by a curious sea lion!

After this I was able to catch up with John DeBoeck, he has been a strong supporter of the scholarship and has hosted many scholars over the years at his hideaway in northern Vancouver Island. It as good to meet up with John, I stayed with him for a few days in town at Nanaimo, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it up to his hideaway. Together we were able to organise my final and most important dive in BC, the wreck of the HMCS Saskatchewan. I originally travelled here to learn more about artificial reefs and my stay wouldn’t be complete without a dive on one of them. Thankfully Ed Singer from Sundown Diving graciously offered to take me out to the wreck on my last day on Vancouver Island. The HMCS Saskatchewan is a 111m Ex-destroyer and is BC’s most popular artificial reef. Sunk in 1997 she has the most prolific marine life, more than other four large sister ships scuttled around Vancouver Island since 1992. The whole structure was covered in white plumose anemones with lots of other marine life poking out from the many nooks and crannies of the ship. I was able to penetrate some of the rooms and swim around the deck and superstructure, but to fully explore the ship would take many dives. I was able to gather some good video footage of the wreck, but unfortunately no photos to share with you. So you will just have to wait until my end of year video!