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They started the dive day at the tiny little islet of La Reina – famous for the enormous bait ball of scad (mackeral) that hang out around the rock. Up until a couple of years ago, this was known as the best and most reliable site in the Sea of Cortez at which to find giant manta rays.
Read MoreOur good friends from the Vancouver Aquarium and Marine Science Centre (led by the ever-intrepid Andy Lamb) requested a repeat of the Sea of Cortez spring expedition of 2 years ago. So heck, why not!
Read MoreThe quickest and easiest way to get around San Lucas is by water taxi so Sandy simply flagged down one of the dozens of passing pangas and made it back to the Nautilus.
Read MoreThey had a great trip to the Revillagigedo Islands (Socorro Island), with lots of giant manta ray sightings and behaviour, some pretty darn good sharking (including our first-ever sighting of 100 plus schooling juvenile silvertip sharks) and good humpback whale behaviour.
Read MoreIt’s the last dive day of this trip and everyone is sad that it’s going to be over shortly. The diving conditions at the Canyon and the Boiler dive sites at San Benedicto Island can be highly variable and Captain Dave reports that the diving has been quieter than usual over the last couple of weeks. It’s still “very good” with large biomasses of fish, silvertip, Galapagos, silky and hammerhead sharks and, of course, our friendly giant manta rays.
Read MoreJust to top things off, four giant manta rays came into to the rock and spent “quality time” with our divers, gliding by close enough to touch. Interestingly, there were very few silky sharks, and divemasters Sten, Tricia and A.J. speculate that the silkies may have been intimidated by all the other sharks. Diving the Revillagigedos (Socorro Island) is not always hot but man, when it’s on, it is RED HOT DIVING!!
Read MoreA group of guests also went out in a skiff to get a closer look at four adult humpback whales and one juvenile and were rewarded with 15 minutes of dramatic tail lobs (smacking their tails on the ocean surface). While tail lobs can be a “back off” message directed at humans, or a “let’s get together guys and stay close,” it seemed much more likely that there was some male to male competitive behaviour going on here. ‘Tis the season at Socorro Island for humpback whales to mate and breed!!
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