First dive reports are in on Clipperton Atoll, the Island that time forgot and a dive destination visited only twice before — by the Nautilus Explorer and by Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. April 16, 2010

It was 3 years since we came here the very first time and the island still exists! A big group of bottlenose dolphins piloted us in to the islands. We are finally here! And I am excited to be back again to learn a bit more about this very remote coral atoll.  And the water! In to shorty , the 7 mm will be hanging in the scuba room! 28 C or 87F!!  And clear blue, On some of the divesites up to 50 m, 150 ft.
We started of on the south side of the island and dived direct under the boat. We whispered in sharks and a bunch of juvenile silver tip just 2 feet long comes curiously in to us. As well we got leather bass and bllue fin  travelly. As much as 50 each just swarms around us. And the starry moray eels are just crazy down here , they go after you and sticking the fin out at them some takes a bite at your fins!!
It was a great start of our diving here! On our last dive of the day we got in 6 hammerhead sharks in good full size 7-10 ft in lenght just cruising by the coral wall at 120 ft, just below a thermaclime that occured with colder and greeen water at 100 ft. Nice to see they are here.  Diveguide Sten.
Surface conditions : A bit windy 8-10 ft swell on the windy side, calm on leward side. Sunny and hot! 35 C
Underwater: none to medium current, that constantly changes directions. Viz 50 ft to easy 100ft 28 c at therma clime it goes down to 25 C.
Today we moved up and explored more of the north part of the atoll. Last year it was in this area we spotted giant mantas. The topography is a bit typical what we have seen around Clipperton so far. Coral reef with the edge att 50- 60 ft that droppes steep down to sanda t ca 12- 130 ft and continuis to slope down to many places more then a 1000 ft . The north side is a bit less drop though. We had a bit of current , but not so bad that we could not swim against it. We dropped under the boat and some of us just stayed by a cleaning station with a lot of barberfish. Lots of leather bass and blue fin Travelly and first one moray eal then an other and an other and then it can look like a snake nest up to 20 m0ray eels at one spot.  Very very curiouse. during the dives today it seems like the animals have not much of fear and are very bold compared too other places I have dived. I  call in predetors by making sound and here we swam out a bit called and at a moment I had 15-20 juvenile silvertip sharks comiong rushing up to us from the deep!!  They are cute 1- 2 ft big no more. Did the same with a silky shark it rushed straigt up and had to wave at it to back off! But where are the adult animals? The hammerheads we saw yesterday where big, but the silvertip and the silkie where just small guys. We have seen so far seen 4 or 5 species of shark so far. Silky , silver, hammer, white tip, and maybe galapagos but we are not sure yet.
In one of our dives up in the north we could hear dolphins under water the whole dive and finally we saw them . But even better was snorkelling with them, the pod was huge. But in water we saw them 30 and up over 50 at the time. More crazy you where behaving crazier they did , swimming and spinning and sounding us. A great experience. And there are many of them around the atoll. Last we did this day was a night dive under the Nautilus Explorer. Lobsters, shrimps and brittlestars came out, Some fish where in a sleeping mode, but it was not so much of change of behaviour. It was a nice long day and time to get some sleep for next day.
Guest comments……
Welcome to Clipperton Atoll!!! After crossing from Socorro, we arrived to a beautiful atoll. We were greeted by dolphins in our wake.  A first was noticed upon our arrival when we saw a ‘bait ball’ being attacked by booby birds and dolphins. Diving along ‘Turtle Wall’ today produced lots of free-swimming morays, several silver-tip sharks, the endemic Clipperton angelfish, and a school of hammerheads. No turtles, but there’s always tomorrow! What a unique opportunity to dive a remote atoll aboard the best liveaboard in the pacific! Stay tuned for more updates! Doc Dave
Clipperton es una isla Mexicana! Vienen los chilangos! Saludos a Mama y mi abuela desde la pared de los Tortugas. que viva México…. y que corra bala!!!!!  Marcos
Comme le drapeau francais flotte fierement sur l’ile de Clipperton!  Pierre
It was nice to get into the water, and it’s definitely a unique spot, like a doughnut in the middle of the ocean. There’s a lot of fish down there!  Steve
A few photos from our 2007 Clipperton adventure taken by Chris Grossman and others.

By Nautilus Staff

Updates, exciting information and other news from the staff at Nautilus Liveaboards.

1 reply on “First dive reports are in on Clipperton Atoll, the Island that time forgot and a dive destination visited only twice before — by the Nautilus Explorer and by Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. April 16, 2010”

Excellent report . . . thank you for sharing! How does one become a “guest” on your trips?

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