They 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!!
Read MoreThey started the day out at the Canyon dive site at San Benedicto Island, and on the first dive, two guests took some fantastic images of an adult female humpback whale and her calf. Divers also saw five Silvertip sharks at the main cleaning station. One closed circuit rebreather diver had the fantastic good fortune of sighting something that none of us had ever seen before – a verified school of approximately 100 juvenile Silvertip sharks. Incredible!!
Read MoreBecause it was such a hot and calm day, Dave decided to make way off the ship and open the pool up for open ocean snorkelling and swimming. Given that they were in 10,000 feet of water, it was fairly certain that nobody would see the bottom! However, guests did see lots of different kinds of jellyfish as well as some pelagic tunicates. We figure that open ocean splashes are always a good bet, time permitting, as you never know what you might see. On the last trip, our guests actually saw a giant manta ray swim past in open ocean!
Read MoreCaptain Dave reports that their transit from San Benedicto Island back to Cabo San Lucas has been beautiful and calm with virtually no movement on the ship. Guests are relaxing, sunbathing and packing their gear away. Dave is planning on getting into Cabo San Lucas early enough for adventuresome guests to be able to see a different type of wildlife…spring break in Cabo is something that has to be seen to be believed!!
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