With nearly 16,000 miles of rugged coastline and more than 40,000 islands and islets, British Columbia’s Howe Sound features fantastic marine life and spectacular coldwater scuba adventures. Stretching 27 miles from its narrow head under lofty mountain peaks at Squamish to its wide-mouth opening into the Strait of Georgia just northwest of Vancouver, Howe Sound is North America’s southernmost fjord. This sea-to-sky corridor crafted by glaciers and perfected by time seems tailor-made for subsea exploration — reef and wreck, rec and tech.
WHEN I MOVED TO SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, from New England in January 2007, I knew next to nothing about the area. As I made my way across the country, I […]
Following the white sand beaches and emerald waters along the Florida Panhandle leads to a diverse set of wrecks and artifacts ranging from oversized sculptures to the largest purpose-sunk wreck in the U.S. This area of Florida is known as the Emerald Coast, and the visibility in this part of the Gulf of Mexico is superior to that along the Louisiana and Texas coastlines.
When I dive in an unfamiliar area, I tell the dive operator I want to start at their best spot — the site with everything. If I get bored with that, maybe I’ll try other sites. If you came to my home turf on the Kona Coast of Hawaiʻi Island and asked me for the site that has everything, I would send you to Ripoff Reef.
The inland seas of the five Great Lakes have a long history of tragedy and shipwrecks. Mariners who sail their waters know the dangers of autumn storms. Thousands of shipwrecks litter the bottom here due to errors in judgment, equipment failure, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mammoth Cave National Park and other cave systems are part of a limestone belt that defines Kentucky’s landscape with its gently sloping bluegrass valleys. This geography made way for Kentucky to become the thoroughbred horse capital of the world and drive an economy built around events such as the Kentucky Derby. Beneath this limestone bedrock, a water supply often ranked No. 1 for water quality in the United States fuels well-known and developing dive sites that are surprisingly blue.
A lifetime’s worth of superb diving awaits adventurous divers in the cool, current-swept waters surrounding British Columbia’s Vancouver Island.
Seventy miles west of Key West, Florida, lies one of the most remote and beautiful national parks in the United States: Dry Tortugas National Park. Sitting isolated in the Gulf of Mexico, these islands mark the westernmost edge of the Florida Keys archipelago.
Located in Missouri, Bonne Terre Mine was closed in 1961 and has since been converted to a haven for scuba divers. Read more about how to dive at Bonne Terre Mine.
The allure of underwater exploration is undeniable, drawing individuals into a realm of profound discovery and quiet, majestic beauty. For many divers, this fascination extends beyond vibrant marine life to the captivating remnants of human history hidden beneath the waves.
