The Swirling Reef of Death, as us Northwest divers affectionately call Gull Reef, is a favorite dive location in the area. The massive current exchange promotes a very diverse habitat, and divers here have seen Basket Stars, Wolf Eels, varied Anemone, gigantic Lingcod, and many other creatures. The reef is a sea-mound, and it is possible to circumnavigate it on one dive!

Click on the image above for a 3D map of the site.

My favorite way of entering this dive it to tuck the boat right in the small cove on the west side of the mound. Enter the water and swim almost to the rocks, inside the kelp beds, then descend. It's about14 feet deep here. Swim out due west until you are 30-40 feet deep.

Heading north from here you'll see a large bed of Sea Pens and will eventually be underneath a large kelp forest, rich with gree, red, and purple urchin, along with a few abalone. The sea bed here is made up of large slabs of granite forming steps deeper and deeper. It will drop off to several hundred feet here, so watch that you stay on the wall.

If you head to the south after entering the water, you'll swim down to 60-70 feet in a rocky seafloor covered with shells . As the wall starts to head east, around 80 feet, you'll be in the Basket Star canyons. These great starfish can be found to depths of about 105 feet on this dive. There are many deep canyons that run southwest and go from 50 feet to deeper than 115 feet. There are lots of Basket Stars here, as well and lingcod and quillback rockfish.

Following any of these canyons up will put you back near the top of the mound, but on the north eastern side. This is a great place to do a safety stop, as the average depth here is 15 - 25 feet, and there are hundreds of green urchin, along with all the other stuff that lives in shallow kelp beds.

It's a great idea on this dive to have some sort of safety marker / lift bag to deploy on safety stop, or in case you get pulled off the mound and have to free ascend. Deploying on your safety stop will let the captain know where you are, as divers may come up on all sides of this reef.

At the end of your dive, signal to the captain that you are ok, and once you see the boat heading towards you, swim off the reef a bit to give the boat some operating room.