Edmonds Underwater Park

Edmonds Underwater Park sits at the foot of Main Street in Edmonds, just north of the Edmonds-Kingston ferry landing on the eastern shore of Central Puget Sound. The park is a 27-acre marine preserve of tide and bottom lands, roughly half of which is developed for diving. Maximum diveable depth in the developed area is about 45 feet. The anchor feature is the 325-foot steel De Lion Dry Dock, sunk in 1935 to serve as a current buffer for the ferry dock and now forming the south boundary of the developed park. Extending from the drydock are the Bruce Higgins Underwater Trails, a guide-rope network anchored to the seafloor that links sunken vessels, tires, concrete rubble, disused navigation buoys, and plastic pipes into a routed park.

The City of Edmonds established the underwater park in 1970, making it one of the first on the West Coast. The Brackett's Landing property was purchased by the City in 1963 and named for George Brackett, an early Edmonds landowner. Approximately 25,000 diver-visits per year come through today, and decades of sanctuary status have produced notably large fish size structure across the resident species. Oversized cabezon and lingcod are documented on the reef.

The engineered wrecks, tires, concrete rubble, and pipes that carry the trail system together form a rocky reef biome, and eelgrass within the sanctuary stands as a seagrass biome inside the same protected area. Water temperature holds between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, and reported visibility ranges from 2 to 40 feet. Buddy diving is mandatory, divers must be certified or in training, buoyancy compensators are required, and night diving is by advance permit only. Ferry traffic sits immediately south of the park boundary, and the De Lion Dry Dock functions as the current buffer between the two.

The Brackett's Landing city lot serves the park, with a 4-hour limit in the main lot and dry changing area, showers, foot-wash, and restrooms on site. Boats, kayaks, and inflatables are banned inside the park boundary. Take is prohibited within the Brackett's Landing Shoreline Sanctuary Conservation Area under WAC 220-303-010, and Edmonds City Code 5.32.110 additionally prohibits possession within the sanctuary of any device intended to take marine organisms, including spears, nets, gaffs, hooks, crab pots, buckets, clam guns, and shovels.