Diving in the kelp forests around the Channel Islands is a unique experience. Although similar to tropical waters in clarity, lavish flora and fauna in the Channel Islands represent every hue imaginable. But unlike tropical diving giant kelp offers another dimension to your dive. Diving in kelp is similar to a walk in a lush forest of trees with these plants growing to heights of more than 120 feet, supporting an aquatic ecosystem that provides domicile for over more than 800 species of marine life.

A Channel Islands trip offers you the opportunity to discover a variety of underwater landscapes.

Juvenile Elephant Seal

©Annie Crawley

The reefs in the Channel Islands are comprised of varied types of rock structures. Like coral reefs, the cracks and crevices provide ideal living quarters for many species. The rocks are overlaid with brightly colored bouquets of anemones, starfish, and garlands of hydrocoral, sponges, and sea fans. Moray eels, octopus, abalone, rock scallops, California spiny lobsters, and a host of others inhabit rock fissures and crevices. Divers may chance upon giant black sea bass weighing in at 500 pounds, or a halibut, lingcod, vermilion rockfish, calico bass and more. Migrating gray whales, blue whales, hump back whales, schools of dolphins, seals and sea lions are familiar sightings in the Channel Islands during crossings.