Talking about big critters, we did the whale shark snorkeling again and had 5 of them. Everyone saw them. But this time they where not staying and feeding at the surface but resting their tails on the sandy bottom like last time. And in just in 30 feet of water, a young Humpback whale came by!!
Read MoreSten reported that they started the trip off with a visit to Los Islotes and the resident population of California sea lion pups. The scuba divers let the sea lions chew on their fins, their wetsuits and one diver was even “kissed” on the mouth. The last dive of the day was on the wreck of the Fang Min – a Chinese fishing boat that was caught fishing illegally in Mexican waters, confiscated and then sunk as an artificial reef on November 17, 1999.
Read MoreWe saw five whale sharks at El Mogote and our two local pangas were busy dropping off and picking up our divers. A 6 metre whale shark stopped to feed and positioned itself vertically in the water, completely indifferent to our snorkellers. This provided a great opportunity for photos and videos. Pelicans reportedly dive bombed the bait fish that the whale shark was feeding on and thousands of the fish ended up hiding in the exhaust bubbles from the underwater main engine exhaust of the Nautilus.
Read MoreSo, over 200 identified Socorro mantas now with lots of resightings and many thanks to everybody who sent manta images and video in to Bob and Karey over the summer. Karey made one especially interesting comment to me that she was able to positively identify several animals a day or two apart at different islands from images taken by our guests. One wonders if the mantas preceded the Nautilus Explorer or followed us??
Read MoreWe had a moderately rough crossing from Isla San Franciscito to Los Islotes (close to Espirito Santo) but were rewarded with an amazing sighting of a baby blue whale. At Los Islotes, we surprised some underwater harvesters fishing illegally. Unfortunately, they took off before we could get a good picture of them. Our divers had a couple of great dives and saw lots of neat stuff including California sea lion pups who came over to play with the divers.
Read MoreWe ventured inside for over a mile and saw amazing upside-down jellyfish and tiny oysters in the mangroves. We also saw osprey, egrets, ibises and herons. We then steamed over to the protected bay at the south side of the small island of San Franciscito where some of our guests went beach walking.
Read MoreOur divers had two great dives and saw lots of sea fans, horn sharks, guitarfish, stingrays and yellowfin tuna. Dave went looking for a blue whale that had been spotted nearby and instead, found a huge school of thousands of mobula rays on the surface, jumping and flapping their wings (pectoral fins) and leaping up to 6 feet out of the water!
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