Cold-water diving

We’re looking for the name of a large island in the Pacific northwest. The Queen Charlotte Strait separates this 300-mile long island from mainland British Columbia. At the northern end of the island is God’s Pocket Marine Provincial Park.

Scuba divers flock there as the cold-water diving season gets underway. You can see colorful Nudibranchs, rockfish, and the occasional Giant Pacific Octopus but for that you need a good supply of oxygen.

“I’m pumping these scuba tanks up to a pressure of 2800 psi and then I’m going to close the valves and release the pressure so that I can undo from the tank, that gives them a full tank for a good dive.”

The answer is British Colombia’s Vancouver Island, which has some of the best cold water scuba diving in the world. Producer Ari Daniel Shapiro recently visited a diving resort just off Vancouver Island and sent us an audio postcard.