READERS CHOICE: BEST DESTINATIONS FOR WALL DIVING

Big animals, currents and even pygmy seahorses add drama to your favorite sheer drop-offs

- BROOKE MORTON

Invertebrate life thrives in the cold, nutrient-rich waters at Browning Wall off Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

BROOKE MORTON got hooked on diving at age 14, and went on to teach scuba on St. Croix after college. She’s dived and snorkeled on every continent.

1st Place Winner North America

1 BRITISH COLUMBIA

Browning Wall is undoubtedly the best coldwater wall dive on the planet. Found off Vancouver Island’s Port Hardy, this sheer wall dropping to 200 feet abounds in invertebrate life—species one is tempted to label macro, swollen to mammoth sizes here thanks to the rich nutrient flow.

The two biggies are the giant Pacific octopus, with arms spanning 6 feet, and the wolf eel, whose body spans up to 5 feet. Sea mammals such as sea otters, sea lions and white-sided dolphins are all common. But perhaps most rewarding are the invertebrates—acres of pink soft corals and plumose anemones, decorator crabs, nudibranchs that swell to a foot long, and starfish.

What’s most shocking to any first-timer is not only the size of these animals, but the extent to which life covers the site. Beyond Browning Wall, the Port Hardy area has 20 more sites, including North Wall and Frank’s Wall.

Corals cover Gordon Reef in the Straits of Tiran; healthy coral-covered walls abound in the Red Sea.

2 TURKS AND CAICOS