RoneyDives

15/04/2022

This Grunt Sculpin found a unique way of surviving the exposed seafloor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MZbEnZH9Y

Grunt Sculpins are adorable fish that are usually found living in Giant Barnacles in the Pacific Northwest, but this Grunt Sculpin found a unique way of surv...

11/04/2022

01/03/2022

Thanks CBC Vancouver for this feature! Happy to be able to raise awareness for Vancouver Island’s lesser-known marine life

John Roney has turned two years of scuba diving off Vancouver Island into a two-minute video that highlights some of the fascinating creatures of the northern Pacific Ocean.

27/02/2022

Spoke with CBC Victoria about scuba diving and the incredible marine life off Vancouver Island this past Friday! You can check out the full interview below

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-93-all-points-west/clip/15897450-meet-diver-spent-pandemic-filming-deep-water-creatures

While some people mastered sourdough bread during the pandemic, or binged a lot of TV, John Roney became enthralled with filming the deep sea off the coast of Vancouver Island. He spoke with Kathryn Marlow about what he witnessed during his dives in our coastal waters.

26/02/2022

Had the chance to talk about my recent video with the team at Victoria Buzz !

A Vancouver Island cinematographer is diving into the waters below, offering an underwater exposé of marine life and colours seldom seen.

19/02/2022

I spent the past two years filming the local marine life off Vancouver Island, on the west coast of Canada. This is a collection of my favourite clips.

Filmed by John Roney

For more underwater content:
instagram.com/roneydives
roneydives.com

10/10/2021

16/09/2021

23/02/2021

Marcelo is making some amazing local dive content over at bugDreamer.com! So many amazing shots of marine life in his newest video (and I was lucky enough to join on some of these dives 🐙😁)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS0IIQYpJvA&t=197s

The exploration shall never end. Scuba diving on Vancouver Island doesn't get much better than this! Despite the freezing cold water conditions there is stil...

12/02/2021

Did you know BC had such colourful underwater life? This dive site on the west of Grouse Island (located in the middle of Quathiaski Cove) is a stellar example of just how colourful cold water diving can be in British Columbia. An incredible amount of sponges and strawberry anemones turn the entire landscape into a vibrant mix of pinks and yellows, and serve as the perfect camouflage for equally vibrant animals like the Puget Sound King Crab. I can't wait to return to this site to find the resident Wolf Eels.

Featuring Marcelo (bugDreamer.com) with his camera setup!

Destination British Columbia

08/02/2021

A Stubby Squid burying itself in the sandy sea floor

When you have to get rid of a few lumpy rocks to get comfy in the sand🦑

Stubby squids are nocturnal and will spend their days semi-buried in the soft sediment of the seabed, folding their arms under their head. Watching this little guy in action was a treat!

18/01/2021

CHEK News

Had the opportunity to chat with CHEK News this weekend about shooting my underwater film 🙂🐙

CHEK UPSIDE: John Roney is setting out on a journey to tell the story of what's beneath the waves off of Vancouver Island.

29/12/2020

The Rainbow Lights of a Lobed Comb Jelly

One of my favourite parts about diving is how alien the environment can feel, and there's few animals that look more alien than the lobed comb jelly (also known as a sea gooseberry) with its rows of rainbow cilia. It uses its two large interior lobes to funnel food towards its mouth, while the cilia beat in synchronization to propel the comb jelly forward.

13/12/2020

Giant Pacific Octopus out of Water

Have you ever seen a Giant Pacific Octopus out of water? They're absolutely mesmerizing - if not a little unnerving. Seeing Henry the Octopus (named after Dr. Bonnie Henry) up close at the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea was such an incredible experience. Now after his brief time at the centre he'll be heading back to sea, December 15th 👋🐙🌊

To learn more about Henry (and all the incredible animals that live in the Salish Sea) go check out the Salish Sea Centre!

22/11/2020

Diving with Sea Lions at Race Rocks | Vancouver Island Diving

Would you jump in the water with Sea Lions? It was such an incredible experience finally diving at Race Rocks, an ecological reserve just off Vancouver Island. With intense currents and an abundance of playful sea lions, this dive site is world class. The sheer density of life here is unbelievable (there are entire rockfaces covered in strawberry anemones).

Thanks for the great charter Rockfish Divers!

02/11/2020

Victoria News

Had a fun time chatting with the folks at Victoria News about an underwater documentary I've been working this past year :) You can check out the interview and trailer for it here!

John Roney expects Under the Emerald Sea to be released in 2021.

21/10/2020

Brittle Stars moving among Nudibranchs

A brittle star navigates its way through a field of red-gilled nudibranchs.

I'll never get tired of watching the way brittle stars crawl along the sea floor, but it was an extra treat seeing them camouflaged amid hundreds of nudibranchs!

25/09/2020

Beneath the Emerald Sea (2021) | Vancouver Island Documentary | Official Trailer

Excited to release the trailer for a documentary I've been working on this past year! If you enjoy it, give it a share to get the word out :)

Take the plunge into the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. This nature documentary was shot entirely off the rugged coastlines of Vancouver Island. Learn about the species endemic to this region, from the Giant Pacific Octopus to Wolf Eels and Puget Sound King Crabs. Coming 2021.

02/09/2020

Diving a Sunken Boeing 737

Would you dive a sunken plane? This Boeing 737, called the Xihuw, was intentionally sunk in 2006 to serve as an artificial reef.

Xihuw is the Hul'qumi'num word for the local sea urchins and while we didn't see any of those inside, there was no lack of life! Plumose Anemones lined the outside and baggage containers, and countless red dendronotid nudibranchs, each nearly a foot in length, clung to the ceiling.

I had hoped to capture a wide shot of the plane but given the poor visibility (we could barely see 15 feet) I was happy with this eerie swim through featuring the intense Lachlan Palmer and his new mask-dwelling crab friend

01/09/2020

The Brain-like Blob-Top Jelly

Have you ever seen a blob-top jelly? Despite some turbulence in the shallows, I wanted to share this clip to show these little guy's brainy insides. I've read that jellies don't have brains, but this one could've fooled me!

28/08/2020

Deep Water Cloud Sponge 100 feet below the Saanich Inlet

Have you ever seen a cloud sponge? Part of the Glass Sponge family, it is very fragile to the touch and incredibly slow growing, it can easily be damaged by trawling or even a careless diver.

Without interference, some are thought to have been alive for 5000 years! Just below 100 feet, there was all sorts of life (crustaceans and otherwise) living around the sponge but we were especially excited to find this Spiny Lithoid Crab living within the sponge itself.

27/08/2020

The Kelp Forests of Ogden Point

Diving beneath the canopies of kelp forests is such an amazing experience, even if the nutrient rich waters can prove a bit challenging for shooting video at times.

Bull kelp can grow up to 30 metres, sometimes growing 25 cm within a single day! Its sheer density can cause nearshore currents to slow down, which in turn slows the movement of plankton. This is part of what makes kelp forests such a hotbed for all sorts of life, like the rockfish and starfish seen here!

On a more personal note, when I was a youngin my big brother convinced me that bull kelp was some sort of beach-dwelling sea serpent that pulled unwary children beneath the sand and out to sea. The bull kelp that I saw washed ashore was simply deceased specimens. Anyway, learning is fun! The more you know

27/08/2020

A Giant Pacific Octopus demonstrates its camouflaging abilities off Vancouver Island

Decided to start sharing my dive videos to Facebook since not all friends and family have instagram!

Here's a Giant Pacific Octopus (with a curious rockfish for scale). The largest octopus species in the world, adults typically have an arm span of 4.3m (14ft). But they can get much larger - one was even recorded with an arm span of 9m (30ft)! Each giant sucker can individually support up to 35lbs

Masters of camouflage, you can see how this octopus changed its colour and texture to perfectly blend into its rocky surroundings. I feel so lucky to have these super intelligent cephalopods in our local waters 🐙

22/07/2020

mahoneydives's cover photo

22/07/2020

mahoneydives