Interesting bottlenose dolphin behaviour at Socorro Island

By on February 25th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

Divers saw the usual complement of electric rays, Socorro lobster, silky, Galapagos and hammerhead sharks, but their most spectacular encounter was with a single bottlenose dolphin who adopted the divers. We’ve been seeing similar behaviour from the dolphins all winter, where they hang out and literally imitate the divers. If a diver hangs on to the ascent line, the dolphin will rest the underside of his head on the line. If a diver blows bubbles, the dolphins will blow bubbles. If a diver does a 360-degree roll, the dolphin will do a full roll (well actually, they tend to be somewhat playful and will often do a 720-degree roll or even a triple barrel roll).

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Easy passage from San Jose del Cabo to San Benedicto Island

By on February 24th, 2007 in Archive, Socorro

The Canyon came through with good diving with giant manta rays, white tip reef sharks, juvenile silvertip sharks and a small school of hammerhead sharks. A couple of humpback whales came close by the boat, but weren’t in the mood to interact with the divers.

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Dominance and a large black manta ray

By on February 18th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

Interestingly, one group of divers reported observing behaviour that reminded me very much of the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island. Last season we would see 2 white sharks swim side-by-side as if they were measuring their respective lengths against each other. The smaller animal would then peel off into the blue. The larger animal presumably being the dominant animal. I “think” we saw the same thing with 2 giant manta rays. 2 animals (a chevron manta and a larger black manta) swam in tight formation in a vertical pattern. The smaller chevron then peeled off and disappeared into the blue. Presumably, just like the white sharks, the large black manta ray established it’s dominance and got to hang out with a human.

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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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NafNaf – the fearless baby silky shark

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

We all fell in love with a really tiny baby silky that had to be a newborn, and couldn’t have been more than 20″ in length – AT MOST! He was very, very cute and our guests promptly named him NafNaf. NafNaf was certainly a fearless shark, and he kept on getting in the way of the larger sharks to the point of snatching a piece of fish out of the mouth of one of the big guys! All of our hearts went out to him.

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Humpback whales singing underwater at Socorro Island

By on February 5th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

It was a sunny, hot and cloudless day. The visibility was great, we could hear the humpback whales singing underwater, dolphins were interacting with us, we saw lots of really cute juvenile silky sharks as well as white tip reef sharks hiding in caves in the coral gardens, turtles, loads of fish, aggressive Socorro lobsters, schooling wahoo and, of course, giant manta rays.

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