Shark Fin Soup??

By on December 16th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Since the discovery of an illegal fishing net draped across a reef at southwest Benedicto wall, there has been some heated and emotional discussions onboard the Nautilus Explorer regarding the abhorrent practice of shark finning, shark fin soup and the whole issue of illegal fishing – especially in a protected biosphere reserve such as Socorro/Revillagigedos. These are huge issues and there are no easy answers.

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A Fishing Net and a Dying Shark at San Benedicto Island

By on December 9th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

So it was a great surprise and very upsetting to find an 800-metre fishing net draped across the southwest San Benedicto wall. Some bloody fishermen must have snuck in here, knowing that the best fishing is, of course, in Biosphere Reserve. Our divers discovered the carcasses of a couple of hammerhead sharks, a dead dolphin, a turtle and most disturbing of all – a barely alive silky shark caught up in the net and still twitching and spasming. One of our guests asked me what the green stuff was that was streaming out of the silky shark’s mouth – which was of course blood which appears to be green rather than red underwater. Some divers tried to free the shark but to no avail.

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Great Hammerhead Shark??

By on December 3rd, 2007 in Archive

Divemaster Sten reports that the swell made it impossible to stage scuba dives at The Boiler but that did not matter as they found giant mantas at El Canyon. They also got the Hammerhead sharks going in circles. Some thought one shark was a great hammerhead shark as it was 12 feet long  (and passed very close by the divers)!! Sten and divemaster Tricia confirmed that it was just a very large scalloped hammerhead shark however. An unusual sighting was when on a surface period a pod of False Killer whales passed by.

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Giant Manta Rays Show Up in Force at San Benedicto Island

By on November 21st, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Divemaster Sten reports that today turned out to be a sad but excellent good-bye to Socorro/Revillagigedo Islands. El Canyon dive site was pretty quiet but the divers luck came at The Boiler with a last ballet of 6 giant mantas. In Sten’s words it was an “interaction with curious mantas who would not leave us alone and gave us so much that we had giant manta rays sticking out of our ears!!” Well said! 

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Kick-off to our Socorro/Revillagigedo Giant Manta Dive Season

By on November 16th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Divemaster Sten (affectionately known as Vikingo) reports that the warmup dives at the divesite El Canyon at San Benedicto Island were pretty quiet without much life. Sten and Captain Dave decided to move around to the tiny submerged pinnacle on the west side of San Benedicto known as The Boiler and found that the diving was on fire with 3 black mantas, a dolphin and even a hammerhead shark coming in to check out our divers.

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San Benedicto enroute Clipperton Island

By on April 12th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Spent the morning at the Canyon on San Benedicto. I splashed in on the first dive which was pleasant with a couple of hammerhead shark sightings plus good ol’ Lumpy, our tame and over friendly leather bass putting in his regular appearance at the inner cleaning station. Dive 2 was GREAT with two friendly giant manta rays showing up as well as silvertip, Galapagos and hammerhead shark sightings.

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Tiger shark at The Boiler, San Benedicto Island

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

Anyways, the visibility this morning 80ft plus and our divers had some great hammerhead, silvertip and galapagos shark sightings. Plus good old Lumpy, our tame leather bass with the broken jaw was there as always. I was very tempted to stay for another dive but flexibility is the name of this game and our guests wanted to move on to the Boiler on the west side of San Benedicto Island.

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