Dive site description:
Edmonds Underwater Park is located next to the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry, a few miles north of Seattle. This site is very friendly, with a nice beach and walkway, an outdoor shower for rinsing gear, and restrooms and changing rooms. It's a relatively shallow dive, and the tides are very forgiving. Use Seattle's tide schedule, but diving here tides aren't nearly as critical as most other sites. Still, if you dive this site during a heavy exchange, don't blame me! 8^)
This is an underwater sanctuary, so fish cannot be hunted or gathered. Because of this, lingcod and cabezon get really huge here. Just be cautious when diving there in January/February, because both species guard their eggs, and will often chase or even ram divers that get too close. Normally they are quite friendly though, and will let you get pretty close.
Many people have done a great job fixing up this underwater park, and it is sectioned off by a rope grid. A map posted by the changing room shows all of the "exibits" to see, and shows how to find them by following the rope gridlines. There is a tug sunk there called the Triumph (I know, ironic name for a sunken boat) that was put there in May 1999, as well as a bunch of other features, such as a huge coil spring called the Slinky, several man-made reefs, a sunken drydock, and other wreck remnants. Most of the dive area lies in 10 to 40 fsw.
This site makes a great night dive. I experienced my first bio-luminescence here, in late January 2000. The sea life is abundant, and the view when sufacing is beautiful. The ferry nearby is lighted up like a christmas tree, and the ferry walkway is a long lighted blue-tinted glass tube. |
