San Ignacio Gray Whales
Extraordinary Interaction & Experience
It’s always a bit of a funny feeling to be on our little 116ft steel island, surrounded by ocean, without land or any other boats in sight. This is one deserted stretch of ocean and on a number of our transits from Baja California to San Benedicto Island, we have steamed for 24 hours without seeing another vessel. It’s like another world out here.
Read MoreWe are berthed in the harbour of Cabo San Lucas and in the midst of turnaround day. Our guests disembarked at 0900 and we are now hurriedly cleaning, washing, tidying, provisioning, fixing stuff and generally scurrying around getting ready for our next group at 1700. After that, we’ll be sailing off into the sunset for a lovely dinner at sea and overnight run down to Isla San Benedicto.
Read MoreVery, very exciting news on our end is the enactment of new legislation in Mexico designed to protect shark populations. I couldn’t be more ecstatic about the news. Is my pleasure inform you that the “Mexican Official Standard Rule NOM-029-PESC-2006, Responsible shark and ray fisheries” was published last February 14, 2007 in the Federal Gazette of the Mexican Government. This set of regulations will improve the management of all shark fisheries (artisanal and offshore) in Mexico and will promote the conservation of shark stocks and vulnerable shark and ray species.
Read MoreHighlights included a huge bait ball of skipjacks being hunted by silky sharks and 100-pound yellowfin tuna, a group of five hammerhead sharks that approached within 40 feet of the divers and a blue water drift dive looking for pelagics. All the usual Roca Partida critters were present, including over 30 white tip reef sharks, silky and Galapagos sharks and some curious wahoo.
Read MoreMost of our crossings to and from Socorro Island are pretty good. It’s unusual to have an uncomfortable crossing. Last night started out silky smooth with a remarkably low swell. Unfortunately, the winds picked up around 0300 and we now have a very short, steep sea which is very odd for the open ocean.
Read MoreThe giant manta rays were too playful and interactive at the Canyon today. Seriously. Our last dive day turned out to be fabulous, and one of the best days of the trip. The big animal diving at Socorro Island and San Benedicto Island can be wildly variable and while the Canyon was very quiet at the start of this trip, it was smoking hot today. A large school of hammerhead sharks (we estimate at least 100 animals) swam past the cleaning station with 20 or so of the sharks very close to our divers. Some of our divers were only half joking when they surfaced and complained that the overfriendly mantas wouldn’t get out of the way and allow the divers to get unobstructed photos of the hammerhead sharks!
Read MoreInterestingly, one group of divers reported observing behaviour that reminded me very much of the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island. Last season we would see 2 white sharks swim side-by-side as if they were measuring their respective lengths against each other. The smaller animal would then peel off into the blue. The larger animal presumably being the dominant animal. I “think” we saw the same thing with 2 giant manta rays. 2 animals (a chevron manta and a larger black manta) swam in tight formation in a vertical pattern. The smaller chevron then peeled off and disappeared into the blue. Presumably, just like the white sharks, the large black manta ray established it’s dominance and got to hang out with a human.
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