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.
Read MoreSo 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.
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 MoreAnyways, the visibility this morning 80ft plus and our divers had some great hammerhead, silvertip and galapagos shark sightings. Plus good old Lumpy, our tame leather bass with the broken jaw was there as always. I was very tempted to stay for another dive but flexibility is the name of this game and our guests wanted to move on to the Boiler on the west side of San Benedicto Island.
Read MoreI think that we sometimes forget the basics of our scuba diving training ie. before ascending always look up, reach up, go up. One of our guests forgot all this on one of his morning dives and was surprised as heck to ascend right into a giant manta ray that was hovering above him. The diver had no idea the manta was there and had the surprise of his life when he bumped head first into 4000 lbs of manta!
Read MoreThe magic of Socorro Island is that these resident mantas actually choose to approach divers on their own terms. We’ve always felt that there must be “something” in the water around Socorro, as a number of resident animals choose to approach and even initiate physical contact with divers. Not just the manta rays but dolphins, Lumpy our favourite leather bass, and even some of the Socorro lobster.
Read MoreThe giant manta rays were too playful and interactive at the Canyon today. Seriously. Our last dive day turned out to be fabulous, and one of the best days of the trip. The big animal diving at Socorro Island and San Benedicto Island can be wildly variable and while the Canyon was very quiet at the start of this trip, it was smoking hot today. A large school of hammerhead sharks (we estimate at least 100 animals) swam past the cleaning station with 20 or so of the sharks very close to our divers. Some of our divers were only half joking when they surfaced and complained that the overfriendly mantas wouldn’t get out of the way and allow the divers to get unobstructed photos of the hammerhead sharks!
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