Garden Jules

Garden Jules is the name of a shallow dive site found on the Western side of Precipice Cove, Bradshaw Sound, New Zealand. This site has a depth range of 10-15m. From a practical point of view, it can only be accessed by a liveaboard boat ( the nearest land access point is Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound, which is a 2-hr boat ride away.)This sheltered site is suitable for a last dive of an overnight visit to the Doubtful Sound complex of fiords. It lies close to the all-weather mooring points used by overnight excursions at the head of Precipice Cove, so can be visited using a rigid-hulled inflatable boat. With a climb of the 660m high Wilmot Pass behind Deep Cove, this shallow dive offers a gentle way to see black coral with minimal risk of a building up of nitrogen credits.

The area is covered in mussel beds across a 20m wide gritty shelf that is roughly 50 m in length. With no steep drop-off, large trees that have fallen into the fiord stay in situ, propped up by their large branches. Divers can safely move in and around this "artificial" reef, which is home a variety of tube anemones, deadman's fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) and sea squirts (Ascidiacea).At its southern edge at around 12m, the shelf gently slopes off into the deep. Here lie a few large rocks where visitors can see beautiful examples of black coral (Antipatharia fiordensis) kept clean by snake stars (Astrobrachion constrictum).