Washington

It?s no secret among divers that Washington State, with its thriving population of giant Pacific octopi and wolf eels, sea-lettuce-strewn reefs and anemones, is a place worth traveling great distances to visit. For those fortunate enough to live here, there?s the excellent perquisite of truly top-shelf diving right in their own back yards. The Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, North and South Whidbey ? these are places that are discussed wherever saltwater divers congregate and that are dived year-round by a significant number of drysuit-owning aficionados. But what makes Washington so local-diving friendly is the great number of shore dives available to divers in state waters.

LOCATION :

Washington is bordered by Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, Canada.

LANGUAGE :

English and various other languages, mostly Spanish

CURRENCY :

U.S. dollar

TIPPING :

15 to 20 percent is customary in restaurants, although you never tip in fast-food or self-service establishments. Taxi drivers and hairdressers depend on similar-sized gratuities

ELECTRICITY :

110V, 60Hz

WEBSITE :

www.experiencewashington.com

CAPITAL :

Olympia

AREA SIZE :

The total area of Washington is 71,342 square miles.

TAXES :

Washington state sales tax is 6.5 percent. Departure taxes are included in the price of an airplane ticket, but local departure tax may not be included if a ticket was purchased outside the U.S.

AREA CODE :

www.allareacodes.com

TIME :

Washington is in the Pacific time zone.

DOCUMENTS :

Most visitors to the U.S. require a visa. However, Canadians need only proof of citizenship. A reciprocal visa-waiver program allows citizens of the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to stay up to 90 days without a visa, if they have an onward ticket.

POPULATION :

5,894,121 (2000 census)

AVERAGE WATER TEMPERATURE :

50F

AVERAGE VISIBILITY :

Largely varies from season to season and dive site to dive site.

TYPES OF DIVING :

Wreck, boat and shore

BEST TIME TO DIVE :

Summer, but hardcore Washingtonians dive all year

WHAT TO WEAR :

Heavy wetsuit with hood or hooded drysuit.

DIVES NOT TO MISS :

Fort Casey Underwater Park, better known as "Keystone Jetty," allows divers to explore the nooks, crannies and caverns created by the boulder jetty: residences for lingcod, china rockfish and octopi galore. One deep spot is known as "The Octopus Hole" for good reason. The jetty also supports a variety of anemone, wolf eels, skates and the occasional harbor seal, and maximum depth on the site is 55 to 60 feet.

Just north of Seattle is another underwater preserve, Edmonds Underwater Park, which has a system of guide ropes and buoys for easy site navigation. The park is so large that it would easily take a weekend to see it all, yet it is still novice-friendly and a great place to see large-because-they-grew-up-protected lingcod, rockfish, cabezon and octopi.

For shore divers who want to venture a bit farther afield, there's the pier at Fort Flagler, a fortification with gun emplacements that guarded the entrance to Puget Sound for the first half of the twentieth century. The fort site has better than 3.5 miles of shoreline, and many visitors bring mountain bikes to get from one historic building to another. Underwater, guide ropes lead from the pier to anemone- and plumeworm-covered reefs, and a sunken barge full of plumbing supplies dates back to 1897.

For diving with more of a wilderness feel, Washington shore divers go to Salt Creek Recreation Area on the northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula. Previously Fort Hayden, a World War II fortification and gun emplacement, the area is now known for its rich marine life and tidal pools and is the site of the Tongue Point Marine Life Sanctuary. In addition to lingcod, rockfish, Irish lords, wolf eels, perch and octopi the usual suspects for a Pacific Northwest dive - Salt Creek offers dense kelp beds. These and its pristine condition are the reasons many Washington divers consider Salt Creek the best shore dive in the state.