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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Illegal tuna clipper at Roca Partida??

By on April 8th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

We checked the radar and discovered a large (225ft??) target doing tight circles off Roca Partida and clearly in the Biosphere Reserve. I suspected that it was a large tuna clipper and that they were watching us through their binoculars because as soon as we launched one of our inflatables, all the lights on the other ship blinked off. The illegal boat then started jinking around at high speed (15 knots plus), apparently doing it’s best to stay away from the inflatable.

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Spring Diving in the Sea of Cortez

By on March 30th, 2007 in Archive, Sea of Cortez

We had a moderately rough crossing from Isla San Franciscito to Los Islotes (close to Espirito Santo) but were rewarded with an amazing sighting of a baby blue whale. At Los Islotes, we surprised some underwater harvesters fishing illegally. Unfortunately, they took off before we could get a good picture of them. Our divers had a couple of great dives and saw lots of neat stuff including California sea lion pups who came over to play with the divers.

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Leaping wahoo and tuna at Roca Partida

By on February 7th, 2007 in Archive, Captain Mike, Socorro

We have never seen so many yellowfin tuna in one place. They all seem to be 100 pounds or more, which is a very big tuna! The action got especially hot off the back of the Nautilus Explorer yesterday afternoon as the tuna and wahoo literally exploded out of the water in giant leaps as they chased down their prey. It is quite something to see a 100-pound tuna jump out of the water 200 feet away from the ship.

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