Scuba Diving with Dolphins?!

By on December 11th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

But the dolphin encounters this season have taken a turn and evolved into something quite spectacular and consistent that we have only rarely seen before. The dolphins have been on hand to interact with our divers on virtually every dive day of the season so far. Video to follow and as you’ll see, the dolphins are coming up to scuba divers at their safety stops on the anchor line, hanging beside the divers, mimicking the divers, presenting themselves to be touched, rubbing themselves against the anchor line and just plain hanging out with our guests. It’s truly amazing and almost as if the dolphins have been taking lessons from the giant manta rays on how to behave around scuba divers.

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Bottlenose Dolphins Come by to Play

By on December 2nd, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

Divemaster Sten reports that they had a few hammerhead sharks out on the lava flow and bottlenose dolphins came into visit the scuba divers again, staying with the divers and basically surrounding them. The dolphins also came up and let the guests snorkel with them a good while on the back of Nautilus Explorer. Water was very clear and the inside of the bay in Cabo Pearce was beautiful. And it is always nice to go and have a look in the end of the dive at the beautiful endemic Clarion damselfish.

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Slow Trip for Giant Manta Ray Sightings

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

We spent the rest of the day at Cabo Pearce where the diving was very good. Divers saw a large school of hammerhead sharks above the outer cleaning station (in approximately 50 feet of water), smaller groups of hammerhead sharks as well as Galapagos and silky sharks.

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One giant manta ray cruising by divers

By on March 10th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

The outer cleaning station (one of our favourite dives at Socorro Island, first recommended to us by cinematographer Bob Cranston) had very good dive conditions with calm seas and mild current, five scalloped hammerhead sharks and one Galapagos shark. One giant manta ray cruising by didn’t seem interested in interacting with the divers. And, of course, the ever-present silky sharks shadowed the divers, curious but not aggressive.

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Amazingly loud humpback whale song

By on February 28th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

Captain Dave reports that humpback whales were singing so loudly today that guests could hear the song inside the lower deck staterooms on the Nautilus Explorer!!! It was quite something for our guests while on their dive. In-water visibility was down on the east side of Socorro Island, with lots of phytoplankton in the water column. While this made it hard to spot big pelagic animals off the outer cleaning station at Cabo Pearce, the guests were rewarded with a great show of feeding behaviour by the giant manta rays. 

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Variable dive conditions – it’s not always super hot.

By on February 15th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

We dove both Punta Tosca and Cabo Pearce today with some really mixed experiences. One lucky group of snorkellers were approached by a humpback whale calf until Mum zoomed in (15ft away!) and dragged the calf away. We also had some great dolphin encounters, and about half the divers encountered a very playful giant manta ray.

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Flat calm crossing

By on February 10th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Had a great run from Roca Partida straight back to Cabo San Lucas. Sometimes it is a rough crossing with 6 – 8ft seas. Most of the time it is pretty nice, with the ship gently pitching up and down and an easy roll from side to side. And sometimes it is flat calm. This crossing was so calm that it was as if we were already tied up to the dock!

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