Entrance Island is a small rocky island located 841 meters (2,759 feet) north of Gabriola Island in the Strait of Georgia. It is used as a haul-out by marine mammals such as harbour seals and Steller’s sea lions. (Where seals come ashore to rest, moult or breed)
Entrance Island Lighthouse (located on the island) is a manned lighthouse. It was built in 1875 to guide ships from the Strait of Georgia into Nanaimo Harbour, and it can be seen from the Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay ferry. The Tsawwassen-Duke Point ferry runs right past it.
The Entrance Island Lighthouse is one of 12 lighthouses in British Columbia that have been collecting coastal water temperature and salinity measurements since 1936. Their data show a 0.15 °C increase in coastal water temperatures per decade. This pattern is thought to be the result of anthropogenic climate change.
Dive Report
Depth: 25m Water Temp: 8C.
“”The geology surrounding entrance Island is dominated by bare rock. A network of small walls is on the west side of the island while the east consists of a smooth rocky shelf that dips down into the main channel of the straight of Georgia.
A large array of marine plants dominate that shallows with large schools of perch. The light house used to dispose of its garbage by ditching it into the ocean so there is regrettably a large pile of rubbish on the west side of the island.“”
Garrett Clement