Alki Beach

This Seattle, Washington, spot is one of America's best urban dive sites.

By John Pennington

Not many dive sites are located within the limits of a major city, but Seattle, Washington's Alki Beach is a notable exception. Amidst the mountainous environs of the Pacific Northwest lies a two-mile stretch of urban beach that has become the premier outdoor classroom for scuba instructors. Here, students and certified divers alike can enjoy myriad activities including wreck diving, marine life identification, and underwater photography, just to name a few.

Visibility at Alki is typical of the Puget Sound region, averaging 10-50 feet (3-15 meters), with wintertime maximums of up to 100 feet (30 meters) or more. Year-round water temperatures of 42degrees -45 degrees F (7 degrees C) suggest that a dry suit is the best exposure protection, although a complete 7-mm farmer john wet suit is usually sufficient. Wintertime air temperatures do get cold and wet near the 49th parallel, but ice picks won't be necessary.

Seacrest marina, just down the road from Alki Beach, is a busy place on weekends. Here on the west shore of Elliott Bay (Seattle's harbor), dive classes frequent the three small coves that face toward downtown and the region's most famous landmark, the Space Needle. In the two coves to the right of the small marina are a group of dolphin (groups of pilings, not the animal). Standing on a sandy bottom in only 30 feet (10 meters) of water, they are alive with the dance of feeding barnacles and curious little sculpin fish.

From these beaches, divers can refresh underwater navigation skills without the worry of strong ocean currents. Hovering above the bottom, buddies can create shadows that scare up Dungeness crabs from the sand. They move in a sidling pace through the eel grass, while alabaster nudibranchs sway in unison upon the slender green blades, posing perfectly for the attentive macro photographer.

Huge shadows looming in the distance don't mean you are about to become a meal for a gargantuan shark. They are only resident harbor seals and migrating Stellar sea lions,the sea's champion acrobats,that come to feed on spawning salmon entering nearby Duwamish River. Diving here in early winter, you can watch these coves transform into nurseries for the thousands of squid that arrive here to spawn.

For divers who enjoy poking around a wreck, the cove to the marina's left has a special attraction. A handful of sunken boats, up to about 40 feet (13 meters) long, make a great artificial reef for the schools of black-banded surfperch that live here. Wrecks like these are also one of the best "get acquainted" sites for any level of diver seeking to meet the area's most well-known resident, the giant Pacific octopus. In just 35 feet (12 meters) of water the invertebrate-rich wrecks are also great places to learn the fundamentals of wreck diving or underwater photography.

Over at Alki's seawall, diving can begin anywhere you like. For the most challenging dive site along this 2-mile (3.2 km) stretch of sandy beach, the spot to enter is locally dubbed, the "Junkyard." The Junkyard proves that its name is truly appropriate. Here you will find heaps of oval-shaped household porcelain along with televisions, refrigerators, and stoves. Although some may consider such debris environmentally unfriendly, try telling that to the ling-cod fish, octopus, decorator warbonnets, hermit crabs, grunt sculpins, and wolf eels who inhabit it.

Just offshore from the seawall's staircase entry, Alki's shallow, sandy bottom averages 25 feet (8 meters), and out there, somewhere among the sea pens, is the collection of porcelain waiting to be found. With no surface buoy to mark the Junkyard, instructors often use this locale as a site for practicing underwater navigation and search and rescue techniques.

As you venture a few hundred meters away from shore, the sea bottom begins its gentle drop off to 90 feet (30 meters). Occasionally, big skates up to 8 feet (2 ¹/2 meters) long may be lying buried beneath the sand like the more familiar southern stingrays of the tropics. And don't be too surprised if a fast-swimming pinniped gets you twirling on your fins.

Because of the distance they go from shore, and the impact of tidal currents, Alki divers are well-advised to use compasses to avoid disorientation. Waves at Alki's exposed beach are not always a problem. The ripples they produce in the sand can be used as directional guides. Remember that Seattlites enjoy year-round boating, so be sure to display a proper diver-down float/flag system any time you are in the water.

Besides boat traffic, currents and weather conditions deserve attention. Local tides rise and fall by as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters), causing currents during the flood and ebb. Combined with the Duwamish River outflow, tidal currents in the deep sea harbor of Seacrest can cause divers to stray into the path of huge ships. For this reason it's best to enjoy a nearshore dive when currents are present. At times currents of up to 3 knots run parallel to shore and can make a great drift dive for properly prepared advanced divers. A hyperbaric chamber is located at the Virginia-Mason Hyperbaric Unit in Seattle.

Few dive sites can offer this variety of sea life, skill training, and scenery in such a relatively compact area. Call or visit one of the many Seattle dive centers for friendly advice about your dive plans.

To get to Alki Beach from Interstate 5, take Exit #163 for the West Seattle Freeway and go west to the Harbor Avenue SW exit. Turn right. About 1 mile along Harbor Avenue is the Seacrest marina with picnic areas, restrooms, a restaurant, rinsing facilities, and a telephone.

Continue along the waterfront to the Alki Beach seawall. Go to the far west side and park on the road near the corner of 63rd Avenue SW, where there is a telephone. To find the Junkyard entry point, walk over the grass to the staircase. Swim out to your left to find the porcelain.