As flowers poked up from the ground in Vancouver, it was easy to smugly tease those stuck in the polar vortex out east. Then a winter blast hit the BC coast. But not even winter’s karmic retribution could slow down Hakai researchers.
On the BC Central Coast, two Hakai divers geared up as the eight-meter R/V Good Hope crunched its way through a centimeter-thick skin of sea ice that had formed overnight on Pruth Bay. While far from ideal, the divers took stock of the situation before deciding it was safe to take the plunge.
“We rolled in back first like usual,” says Hakai diver Derek Van Maanen. “It was weird. Like the most subtle pause as you slow down mid-fall and break through the ice.”
Derek and the crew are used to diving in water temperatures between 7 and 11 °C. Nothing a drysuit and a few fleecy layers can’t handle. But on the day before Valentine’s Day, Pruth Bay was a teeth-chattering 3 °C.
