Silky sharks under the ship’s lights

By on February 9th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Crew, Socorro

Dave reports that the divers saw 7 silver tip sharks between 5 and 7 feet in length circling at the north end of Roca Partida, along with at least 10 silky sharks and some good-sized Galapagos and hammerhead sharks. One interesting note is that one small silvertip shark apparently chased away 4 larger silky sharks (4 – 5 feet in length) that were hanging around a tag line hanging off the back of the Nautilus Explorer. Not sure on the dominance behaviour of silky and silvertip sharks, but that strikes me as highly irregular behaviour.

Read More

Leaping wahoo and tuna at Roca Partida

By on February 7th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

We have never seen so many yellowfin tuna in one place. They all seem to be 100 pounds or more, which is a very big tuna! The action got especially hot off the back of the Nautilus Explorer yesterday afternoon as the tuna and wahoo literally exploded out of the water in giant leaps as they chased down their prey. It is quite something to see a 100-pound tuna jump out of the water 200 feet away from the ship.

Read More

Humpback whales singing underwater at Socorro Island

By on February 5th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

It was a sunny, hot and cloudless day. The visibility was great, we could hear the humpback whales singing underwater, dolphins were interacting with us, we saw lots of really cute juvenile silky sharks as well as white tip reef sharks hiding in caves in the coral gardens, turtles, loads of fish, aggressive Socorro lobsters, schooling wahoo and, of course, giant manta rays.

Read More

Amazing dolphins acting like puppies

By on February 4th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

We dove the same site 2 hours later and there was virtually no current, beautiful blue water and a couple of curious mantas circling around as well as 4 bottlenose dolphins pressing their noses on the descent line acting as if they were puppies resting their chins on the edge of a table. The dolphins were squeaking away and laying their heads sideways to look at the divers. Totally amazing.

Read More

Night dive at Socorro Island

By on February 3rd, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Our friends on the Solmar V frequent a site there called the Aquarium. It is nice but not too sharky, which makes it perfect for a night dive. We arrived there at 8 pm and launched our divers shortly afterwards. You can imagine my sigh of relief when they reported back that it was a great night dive with nice visibility and lots of critters including dense nests of Socorro lobsters. Phew!

Read More

Tiger shark 2 feet away at San Benedicto Island.

By on February 2nd, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

A couple of our guests are here to free dive instead of scuba dive which is always good fun. One of them has been free diving for over 30 years and had the experience of his career today when he came face to face with a tiger shark. He was on the surface resting between dives when a huge tiger shark came right in towards him at The Canyon dive site on San Benedicto Island. He says that the tiger shark was huge and just kept coming in closer and closer until it was only 2 feet away. Yes, 2 feet away!

Read More

What the crossing is like between Cabo San Lucas and San Benedicto Island

By on February 1st, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

What a beautiful night. We are anchored in the lee of San Benedicto Island, tucked in beside the moonlit volcano. It is spectacular. I often get asked what the open ocean crossing is like between Cabo San Lucas and Socorro Island…

Read More