Medical Evacuation with Great Thanks to the Mexican Navy

By on December 29th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

On a different note, our great thanks to the Mexican Navy for their help today. One of our guests started feeling ill last night and was diagnosed this morning with acute pancreatitis – which is extremely serious and potentially life threatening. A number of evacuation options were considered including a chopper medivac flight right to the boat, which is possible because the Nautilus Explorer has a rated helicopter deck. No options are easy or simple on a small ship anchored in the lee of a volcano, 250 miles out into the open Pacific ocean.

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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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Giant Mantas and a Whale Shark at Roca Partida

By on December 14th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

My last dive today was even more special. We were hanging off the north end of Roca Partida in the shallows with 10 or so divers below us and their bubbles streaming to the surface. The positioning of the divers was such that the bubbles looked like vertical curtains with a passageway between them. I was busy admiring this when a giant manta swooped in beside me and flew straight down the alleyway, twisting and turning around the veil of bubbles. It was beautiful. And then he turned around and did the whole thing over again leaving no question in my mind that this intelligent animal was clearly and deliberately playing in the divers’ bubbles.

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Exploratory Scuba Diving, Looking for More Mantas at San Benedicto Island

By on December 5th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

We decided to try a new site on the north point of San Benedicto Island and it was GREAT!! We spotted 5 mantas on the surface before anchoring, and we saw them during the dive also. We also had 3 green turtles who stayed with us. Above us on this ridge we had huge yellowfin tunas and also dolphins. So we decided to do our last scuba dive of the trip here as well. On the safety stop one of our divemasters got his thumb bitten as a goodbye present from a Cortez Chub.

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The Boiler is on Fire with Mantas and Dolphins!

By on December 4th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

The Boiler site was on fire again! This time we heard dolphins but did not see them. The giant manta rays were with us again! Doing their beautiful dances and seeking eye to eye contact with each one of us (I believe anyways). They were so close that you can see their pupils. It feels like a real, personal, encounter in these moments. Photos and filming of mantas was hot! It is a bit amusing to see when the memory card on the scuba divers’ cameras got full and they would start to delete pictures to make room for more. Everybody came up with big smiles on their lips and everyone had their own private story how these giant manta rays have been coming up and curiously been checking you out, eye to eye. Even on our twilight dive they accompanied us like giant black flying ghosts in the dusk.

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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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Full Inspection at the Navy Base on Socorro Island

By on December 1st, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

A couple of Hammerheads and two curious mantas came by the ascent line. Our third dive of the day was a so called “washing machine” dive. Lets just say that some did not appreciate it so much and others had fun playing with the current, finding the slacks and using it to their favor. Not easy with current. But learning it and reading it you can find a lot of benefits with considerably more activity in marine life.  Last dive in the day we went inside and had a bit of meditation dive. The biggest surprise of all was the unafraid lobsters we found in every little crack.

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