Crab Dock is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located in Newport, OR.
A great site for, what else, CRABS! The Docks have easy access and entry, but you do have watch out for the current. Plan your dive for slack! Exploring under the dock, lost items, from the landlubbers above, are there for the taking!
Directions: Take the nearest exit from the South side of the Newport Bridge. Head down the hill toward the water, and find the parking lot close to the bay just to the East of the bridge. You won’t see the dock until you start to walk toward the water.
This was a dive we did and won’t do again. There is a long walk to get in the water. Then a climb down the rocks followed by a long surface swim. There was very little life at crab dock. The only crab we saw were about 5, 3-4in. Red Rocks just before high slack. Current was pretty strong so we didn’t go out to the end of the dock. We just drift dived back to shore. We did find a crab pot, 3 bait boxes, and a chocolate bar so, if you wanted to get some treasures, people drop things off the dock! One jerk dropped a pot right next to us so be careful while diving.
I dove this once with a local diver. We walked out the dock and climbed over the rail (he has jumped before) which gives the dry people a chance to ask questions and assures them that we are looking for lost pots, not their crabs. I surfaced swam back to the jetty/shore, since I didn’t want to climb up the pilings. I will do it again.
This is not really much of a dive. Entry down rocks on west is okay but then you have a long surface swim. Entry from jetty on east allows less swimming but bottom is really mucky. Surprisingly little life around pilings. Crabbers on dock can be highly suspicious. I actually wanted to review the OSU research vessel dock which is a much better dive but was not listed. You just follow the road about another 1/2 mile to a large dead end turn around. You can see the dock from there. Not a great dive but much better than crab dock. There is a sunken tree, a large tire, a number of other items and a rock jetty. Lots more life and if you dive on the high after a minus tide the crabs can be numerous.
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_West/Oregon/Crab_Dock/index.htm