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.
Read MoreWe’ve been watching one poor old Galapagos shark with a fish hook and leader stuck in his gill plate all season. I’ve become quite certain that Galapagos sharks are resident rather than transient because we see this guy every time we dive Roca Partida. The sad thing is that he has been getting skinnier and skinnier and now looks quite emaciated. The alarming thing is that his behaviour is changing and he is now coming in VERY close to divers. He swam up to me this afternoon and it’s the first time that I had a gut feeling that I had better “watch out” around him. An understandable behaviour I guess if he is sick and starving to death. Damn, I wish there was an easy way to get rid of the illegal longliner fishing boats.
Read MoreNone of us are ever going to forget the 1/2 million booby birds (and their incredibly cute chicks) that we saw, the 5 million bright orange land crabs, the amazing number of moray eels and their bizarre behaviour, the thick “clouds” of black and big-eye jacks, heavy schools of black triggerfish and rainbow runners, the endemic iridescent blue Clipperton angelfish and the coconut groves, white sand beaches and beautiful setting.
Read MoreI literally laid on the white sand bottom at 175 feet watching 12 leather bass (yes, I counted them!) and a school of big eye jacks swarming around me, the bizarre free swimming fine spotted moray eels of Clipperton Island swimming around like fish everywhere I looked, beautiful brilliant blue juvenile endemic Clipperton angelfish darting around and the coral wall sloping up above me with the Nautilus Explorer outlined up above in the beautiful blue water.
Read MoreI have to report that we haven’t seen many sharks yet. Three hammerheads and a couple of silvertips today and that was it – OH WAIT!! We also saw a nice 25ft whale shark swim by this morning!! We often see whale sharks at Roca Partida (Socorro Island) in November and December, and then they disappear when the water cools down as the cool waters of the California current push southward. The water temperature at Clipperton Island is presently 82˚F and I’m wondering whether the Socorro whale sharks head down this way to stay in nice balmy water?? Hmmm.
Read MoreSpent 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.
Read MoreWe 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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