Great new addition to Edmonds Underwater Park

Yesterday Meghan & I did a Naturalist dive as part of her AOW certification at Edmonds Underwater Park (now technically known as "Bruce Higgins Underwater Trails"). The weather was blustery, lots of surface-driven waves but calm underwater - we ended up having a fantastic dive: 42 feet max depth for 60 minutes, water temp of 50 degrees.

There is a new addition to the park as of a week or so ago - a 100'L x 20'W x 19'D barge that lies just a few feet to the west of the Triumph. It was sunk without much fanfare other than Edmonds locals saw the "big crane barge" helping but it down. Lots of mussels on the sides but squeaky clean on top and inside. It's marked by two 55 gallon blue drums. We decended on the white ball with the dive flag on it which was inline between those drums. This put us right on the Triumph. Boy had it deteriorated since the last time I saw it a few years ago. But it's a magnet for Lingcod and Rockfish which makes it still appealing.

The new barge has large openings on top which reveal rooms the whole depth of the structure. I think this would be a good opportunity for a wreck class but we didn't come prepared for penetration so we just looked over the lip of the rooms. If you want to penetrate - and it's oh so appealing - make sure you have proper training and equipment. Soon there will be silt inside which will make for a low viz, overhead environment which isn't appropriate for beginners or for anyone without a line to the exit. The barge itself is propped off the bottom by a couple of feet. Something about permitting that didn't allow them to put the barge directly on the bottom. Certainly not safe for going under the structure but fun to peek underneath - we saw the giant lips of a Lingcod wondering what the heck we were shining our light at!

Since it was a naturalist dive, we saw Kelp Greenling, Lingcod, Painted Greenling, Longfin Gunnel, Penpoint Gunnel, Black Rockfish, Copper Rockfish, Quillback Rockfish, Cabezon, Kelp Surfperch, Pile Perch, Shiner Surfperch, Striped Seaperch, Tube-Snout, Coonstripe Shrimp, Dungeness Crab, Northern Kelp Crab, Red Rock Crab, Lacy Bryozoan, Fish-eating Anemone, Plumose Anemone, Sunflower Star, White-lined Dirona, Northern Feather Duster Worm, Hooded Nudibranch, Clown Dorid and a Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch. 27 species in total!

Very nice dive. Made for a much more interesting REEF survey than Seacrest Cove 2. Must remember that the long surface swim is well worth it - and there is plenty of great structure on Jetty Way on the way in so you don't have to spend all your time on the new barge or Triumph. Hope you can make it there soon!

Thanks Meghan for being a great dive buddy!