Location: Cabo Pearce, Socorro Islands, Isla Revillagigedos.
Comments: We’re on the hook at Cabo Pearce today in the company of a yacht with some very avid Mexican divers onboard, as well as the San Diego-based long-range sportfishing vessel, Royal Star. It is really unusual to see anyone else out here other than the Solmar V, and especially unusual to be sharing our anchorage.
The folks from the Royal Star came by to visit and fill us in on the very interesting work that they are doing with yellowfin tuna. Turns out they have a load of full-paying guests who are helping catch yellowfin tuna under Mexican permit, surgically implant archival tags and then releasing the fish. The mortality rate is very low, and the archival information is very useful to scientists, and the lucky fisherman who next catches one of these tunas gets a cash reward between $500 and $1000 for turning in the tag!!
Visibility was variable at the outer cleaning station, but we had good sightings of 4 different mantas, schools of tuna, a couple of inquisitive Galapagos and silky sharks, and small schools of scalloped hammerheads as well as 1 possible sighting of a 12 foot long great hammerhead.
I went freediving late in the afternoon and had a lovely time communing with a school of triggerfish, as well as some pompano that appeared to be feeding on air bubbles right at the surface. The coolest thing of all was when a group of divers stumbled across a spawning school of surgeonfish on the outer reef. They reported that it was a very large aggregation of fish, and every so often small groups of animals would shoot up vertically, 5 to 6 feet above the rest of the school and spawn mid-water. I wish that I had seen that!!
–Captain Mike
Weather: Overcast, 74°F, 15-knot winds, seas subsiding from yesterday with a low swell in our anchorage.
Water: Visibility variable from 35 – 75 feet, water temperature 73°F
