Victoria, BC tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 16:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are America/Vancouver local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Sun 03 May (range 3.6m). Next neap on Sat 09 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Victoria sits at the southern tip of Vancouver Island on the Juan de Fuca Strait, the international waterway separating Vancouver Island from Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. The tidal regime is mixed semidiurnal — two unequal high waters and two unequal low waters per day, a characteristic of BC's Pacific coast where the lunar diurnal and semidiurnal constituents combine to produce this pattern. Mean spring range is approximately 2.9 metres, but the higher high water and the lower low water on a large spring day can differ by up to 3.5 metres, with the lower low reaching below 0 metres on the chart datum. Victoria Inner Harbour functions as the city's front door. Float planes operate regular scheduled service to Vancouver and Seattle, lifting off directly from the harbour basin. Water taxis cross to outlying docks and to Fisherman's Wharf, where a floating village of houseboats and food stalls occupies a protected moorage. Whale-watch vessels — running trips for J/K/L pod southern resident killer whales and for humpbacks, minkes, and grey whales on the Strait and the eastern Juan de Fuca — depart from the Inner Harbour and from Fisherman's Wharf docks multiple times daily in season (April through October). Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, 10 kilometres south of Victoria at the southern tip of the Metchosin shoreline, is one of the strongest tidal current sites in British Columbia. The rocks constrict the Juan de Fuca flow, generating currents to 7 knots on large spring tides — producing turbulence, upwelling, and associated marine productivity that supports California and Steller sea lions, harbour seals, elephant seals, river otters, and a resident population of orca. The reserve is accessible only by chartered boat or guided kayak tour; it is an ecological reserve, not a park, and landing on the rocks is restricted. Ogden Point Breakwater, at the southwest corner of the Inner Harbour, is Victoria's most popular shore dive — an accessible, sheltered entry with a vertical wall dropping to 20 metres and significant marine life (lingcod, rockfish, giant Pacific octopus). Tidal current awareness is required: on the ebb, water draining from the harbour through the breakwater gap creates a lateral current that can be strong enough to push divers off the wall. The incoming tide is the calmer dive window. Dallas Road runs along the James Bay waterfront south of the Inner Harbour, with views across the Strait to the Olympic Mountains. The intertidal zone here is accessible on lower tides, with ochre sea stars (recovering from the 2013–2014 sea star wasting disease), purple urchins, and ochre and barnacle zones visible at low water. The rocky intertidal is best accessed on minus tides below 0.0 metres chart datum — occur several times per month from March through July. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. For authoritative Canadian tide data, consult the Canadian Hydrographic Service (tides.gc.ca).