Location: Roca Partida, Revillagigedo Islands (Socorro), Mexico.
Comments: Leaping Wahoo! Jumping yellowfin tuna! Kapow! I felt like I was in an old Batman TV episode yesterday afternoon! We’ve been anchored onsite at Roca Partida for 2 days and the diving has been awesome. We have never seen so many yellowfin tuna in one place. They all seem to be 100 pounds or more, which is a very big tuna! The action got especially hot off the back of the Nautilus Explorer yesterday afternoon as the tuna and wahoo literally exploded out of the water in giant leaps as they chased down their prey. It is quite something to see a 100-pound tuna jump out of the water 200 feet away from the ship. My fervent wish is that the commercial tuna boats and longliners stay the heck out of the biosphere reserve this year and give these poor fish a chance to survive and propagate. While still in the planning stages, we are helping to develop a plan to use a twin-engine aircraft to implement a random schedule of 70-90 patrols of San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida, and Clarion Islands throughout the year. The Mexican Navy does a great job of enforcement, but Islas Revillagigedos is a vast marine reserve and a resource like this could make a big difference in catching illegal fish boats and persuading the rest of the fleet to stay away.
–Captain Mike
Weather: High thin scattered clouds. 5-knot winds. Hot and sunny. Seas flat as a pancake!
Water: Visibility 75 feet. Water temperature 73°F with thermoclines.
