Farnsworth Bank

So you'd like to dive an open ocean style seamount, but would like to have the option of a fantastic island dive! FARNSWORTH BANK located just one and one half miles off of the windward side of Catalina Island is your destination.

This seamount attracts a variety of pelagic fishes and mammals as well as being home to a myriad of reef fishes and invertebrates. Huge tufts of purple hydrocoral cover the mount from 65 to over 100 feet in depth, while nudibranchs and sedentary bottom fishes hide amongst its stalks.

Imagine peering down a crevice at a moray eel when all of a sudden you sense that the sun has set. Looking toward the surface you realize that the sun hasn't set, but has been blocked out by the largest school of mackerel you've ever witnessed! The mackerel vanish. What's next? Barracuda! California barracuda by the hundreds, harmless to you, in search of lunch.

You meander your way across the bottom, coming face to face with a torpedo ray and just before you find your way back to the anchor line to start your ascent, you peer over the edge of a sheer 75-foot wall!

This dive can be fairly demanding due to open ocean conditions, intermediate to deep water (60-130 feet) and current. You should have upper intermediate to advanced level diving skills.

FARNSWORTH BANK, open ocean thrills, close to shore!

Click to view interactive range map