Octopus Hole

Washington, USA West
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Difficulty
beginner
Viz (last reported 7603h ago)
Max Depth
35.1 ft

Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Octopus Hole

Like the close-by Sund Rock area, Octopus Hole is very popular with Scuba divers who enjoy diving the wall to view various underwater creatures, including but not limited to Lingcod, North Pacific Giant Octopus, Wolf Eel, and nudibranch. The most popular wall to dive in this area is about 200 yards long and starts at roughly 40 fsw, going down to roughly 50-60' fsw, depending upon the tide. Many divers use a large tree that has partially fallen out towards the water to help find the beginning of this wall. Once they have done the surface swim out to this tree, they can then drop down to the wall. Another, smaller wall is accessible, at roughly 90 fsw. This wall is nearly straight out from where most divers climb down from highway 101. Because Octopus Hole is a conservation area, no hunting or gathering of any kind is permitted. The area also has very limited parking. Essentially, parking areas are nothing more than small turnouts on the highway. There is no formal trail or pathway. Getting gear down and back from the water requires good balance as you walk down on large irregular rocks to the water. Sometimes two trips is better, remove weights or camera gear on one trip. In spite of this, the Octopus Hole is quite popular. Access is always free of charge. This area is not current sensitive. Source: Wikipedia.org Octopus Hole is a designated conservation area on Washington's Hood Canal. It is located right off Highway 101 just over three miles from Hoodsport.
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Ed Kenney
Ed Kenney
Aug 17, 2006, 12:00 AM
scuba
I can't resist an update. The now annual start-to-Fall low oxygen conditions on this wall is making for some interesting diving. The lack of oxygen at the bottom of Hood Canal forces thousands of fish into the top of the water column where they then swim in diver territory. Accordingly, though, in previous summers a diver might only see a few groups of five copper rockfish along the wall, now there are schools of 50 big coppers at frequent points along the wall as well as occasional quillbacks and even black rockfish. Ling cod are still plentiful as are wolf eels, but this last week there was not an octopus was to be found, and very few nudibranchs. Crab, shrimp, moon snails, flounder, anemone and sea cucumbers are still plentiful, but I imagine in another month lots of these will be washed up dead on the beach.
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