Turn Point

Turn Point marks the northwest tip of Stuart Island, at the intersection of Haro Strait and Boundary Pass, with Canadian waters beginning just northwest of the point. The wall itself is expansive and sheer, dropping past 140 feet on divers' sounders, and charts show depths past 300 feet at the point. The recreational diving range runs from 70 to 110 feet, and a shelf at roughly 60 feet gives divers a place to hold before dropping onto the wall. Heavy invertebrate encrustation covers the rock: giant plumose anemones and bright orange colonial sea squirts dominate the face, and occasional Puget Sound king crabs work the structure.

Turn Point Light Station, a BLM-managed lighthouse and historic complex, sits above the point. The name reflects the point's role as a major navigational turning point for commercial shipping between Haro Strait and Boundary Pass, and the freighter route into Vancouver runs directly overhead.

Sheer wall and heavy invertebrate encrustation define the site as a rocky reef biome. No kelp forest is documented on the face. Scuba is the sole activity, and the site is for advanced divers only. Live-boat operation is required, because the sheer shoreline and extreme depth make anchoring unfeasible and emergency water exits extremely difficult. Major current runs at every exchange, and divers must work the wall only at slack during mild exchanges, using the Drayton Passage current station as the reference.

Access is boat only, and no shore route reaches the point. The nearest boat launch is Cornet Bay State Park on Whidbey Island, and in practice most divers reach the site on charter boats out of Anacortes. Turn Point sits directly on the international boundary with Canada, and crossing the line moves the dive into Canadian waters under DFO rules. On the United States side, standard Marine Area 7 rules govern: rockfish retention is prohibited across Marine Areas 6 through 13, lingcod spearfishing runs May 21 to June 15 with a 36-inch maximum and a daily limit of 1 fish, and cabezon is open May 1 to November 30 at an 18-inch minimum with the same daily limit. WDFW and the USCG share enforcement.