Keystone Jetty: A Puget Sound Classic

I’ve lived on Whidbey Island for nearly six years now, but it’s only been fairly recently that I’ve been able to start diving here. Family commitments, kid’s soccer games, community volunteerism and my own multimedia business, have all conspired to keep me out of the water, more than in it.

Fortunately, now that one of my clients is Dive Rite, I have to dive. Right?

So, it was with great enthusiasm that I recently took my brother and business partner, Kevin Sparkman, diving at one of Puget Sound’s best dives, the Keystone Jetty.

The Keystone Ferry landing and the Keystone Jetty. Dives begin on the side opposite the ferry landing. (Washington State Dept. of Ecology)

In addition to being a great dive because of it’s easy shore access, sheltered cove, predictable tides, picnic tables and restroom facilities with a hot shower, Keystone Jetty is a Marine Protected Area. This means it’s off limits to fishing of any kind. You can see almost all Puget Sound species here, up close and personal, including huge ling cod so tame you can practically tickle their chins.

On this particular October day, we had one of those days that we don’t like to talk about much, lest outsiders get the mistaken impression that it’s not always raining here. In other words, it was a gorgeous sunny day. I knew that with the cooler fall temperatures (meaning less plankton) and a clear sky, it would be an excellent dive with good vis for this area.

We suited up (me dry, Kevin wet), and made our way down the gravel and cobble beach to the water. I’d heated up nicely in the dry suit in the sun getting into my gear (a lot of new Dive Rite gear I was using for the first time), so stepping into the 50 degree water brought some relief. I bobbed for a while, fooling with the video camera and housing, which I’d never used before, waiting for Kevin.

On the drive up, I’d given Kevin a little pre-dive instruction about diving in this environment (only his second time), including a heads up that it’s easy to get tangled up in the bull kelp. So, it was with some amusement as we headed through the kelp that marks the start of this dive to see him do just that.

Kevin Sparkman makes his way through the bull kelp at the start of a dive at Keystone Jetty, on Whidbey Island. (Russell Sparkman (Video Still))

I love diving in kelp forests, an experience I first had in my late teens, when I lived and dived off of Monterey, CA, for 3 months. Swimming amongst kelp strands is like flying amongst trees, where the poetic play of light and shadows in the forest comes from the sun’s rays filtering through blue-green water and golden kelp fronds.

While less leafy than the giant kelp of the California coast, our Pacific Northwest bull kelp is no less fascinating. It is rope-like, from the point where it’s anchored to rocks up to the hollow, bulbous top that acts like a fishing float. This float lifts the long flowing fronds of the plant to the surface, reaching for the sun.

One can look down at where the kelp is anchored and find the bottom crawling with crabs, bottom fish and starfish the size of manhole covers, and then look up at schools of baitfish flying in formation near the point where the surface meets the sky.

A kelp crab lives -- in the kelp -- swaying in the current much like a bird on a branch swaying in a breeze. (Russell Sparkman (Video Still))

As the water gets deeper along the Keystone Jetty boulders, the bull kelp zone ends and a zone that looks more like a ski slope than an underwater marine habitat begins. That's when you realize that the white that is blanketing the rocks is a huge colony of white, giant Plumose anemones. On stalks a foot or longer, the Plumose anemones look like feathery cauliflower.

It’s in this zone that it pays to start poking around the nooks and crannies. I’ve seen the Giant Pacific Octopus here before, but haven’t seen a wolf eel, although they’re purported to be around.

What is most predictable for wildlife viewing here are the big ling cod. A diver can often find his or herself eye-to-eye with log-like lings sitting statue-still on top of the jetty’s boulders.

A ling cod hides amongst kelp. At about two feet long, this was one of the smaller ones seen on the dive. Notice how well it's camouflage would look against the rocky bottom. (Russell Sparkman (Video Still))

And it was on the second of this day’s dive (of course, the dive without the video camera) that Kevin directed me to squeeze into a hole to see something he thought worth pointing out. I found myself nose-to-nose with a ling cod whose head was easily the size of a basketball. It had eyes the size of golf balls, and lips as thick as bananas.

Several days later I related this sighting to a friend who’s been diving these waters for years. He told me big ling cod like the one we saw can be 60 inches long, and can weigh over 80 pounds. These fish are highly sought after by recreational fishermen and spearfishermen – at the end of a line, they put up a heck of a fight, and they taste great on the grill. Therefore, they are highly susceptible to over-fishing. Which is why the Marine Protected Area status at Keystone is such a special feature of diving on Whidbey Island.

It was a thrill to see such huge fish, fearless of man, where you can approach within a foot or two of them. For that experience alone, it's worth repeat dives at Keystone Jetty.

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