San Ignacio Gray Whales
Extraordinary Interaction & Experience
Location: Cabo Pearce, Socorro Island, Baja California. Mexico Diving down by the inner cleaning station on at Cabo Pearse on Socorro Island was just one of these dives again!! A complete wall of hammerhead sharks ray we where hanging on to the rocks and made our self as small as possible and we got a […]
Read MoreLocation: Roca Partida, Socorro Island, Islas Revillagigedo, Mexico We just completed 8 scuba dives (over 2 days) at Roca Partida and I have to say we couldn’t have had better weather. To see the “Pacific” Ocean actually live up to her name is a rare thing indeed, and we were blessed with absolutely flat calm seas […]
Read MoreOver the two days all of our divers were able to have closer and more intimate interactions with a couple of giant manta rays than anyone imagined. Some divers saw a small school of 10 hammerheads and one lucky group of divers had terrific interaction with a dolphin who played for 5 minutes before taking off rapidly and leaping out of the water. The silvertip and Galapagos sharks were off the northeast end of the rock circling in and out of view. One of the Galapagos sharks looked like it is recovering from a nasty spear wound to the head. He has a large lump with a hole on the top right side of his head and a hole/scar on the bottom left side by his gills. The good news is that we saw him last trip as well and he seems to be recovering nicely.
Read MorePunta Tosca on dive day 4 was also surprisingly quiet and the visibility was low so after 2 dives at the outer point we decided to move the Nautilus up a couple of bays and try a new site. A series of small rocks sticking out of the water with a sheer drop to 120 feet on one side and shallower bays on the other. It proved to be fascinating and several guests saw sea turtles and a “fly by” with a giant manta. Definitely a site that we will repeat but once again the “charismatic megafauna” was elusive.
Read MoreWe did the Giants Causeway (or Southwest Benedicto for Mike) as the third dive and saw 2 or possibly 4 mantas but they did not seem to want to interact with us. Dive day 2 and we went to the Boiler for the first scuba dive. The dive was spectacular, 100+ feet of visibility, a pod of 6 dolphins and almost no current.
Read MoreWe anchored so that we could swim to the dive site, and with no current and very little waves, we had an open deck for the day so guests were free to dive whenever they felt like. Between dives, a lot of guests chose to accompany Marco, our chief mate, on a tour of the shoreline to see the arches and pinnacles and whale watch. From the Nautilus we watched a young humpback whale leap multiple times out of the water followed by an adult humpback breaching creating some wonderful photographic opportunities.
Read MoreOver the years, we have seen that the manta rays at San Benedicto seem to like to interact with scuba divers, coming back and making eye contact and as divemasters we have felt that they will always single us out and make a close pass as if they recognize us. There are three models/freedivers on this trip who have been diving down and swimming with the giant manta rays and one of them has definitely been singled out by two of the mantas that we encountered. Every time she dives down the mantas will turn into her and circle around her and get very close. The other two divers, one male and one female, are getting are far less interest from the mantas. Hmmm…
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