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.
Read MoreOne of our divers reported seeing extraordinary behaviour with a very large male mobula ray (which is still dwarflike in size compared to a giant manta ray) pursuing a female chevron giant manta. While we have seen a lot more female than male mantas this season, the males are definitely here and we sometimes observe what appears to be mating behaviour with the male pursuing the female from behind and the two of them soaring and dancing through the water. It’s hard to tell if they are both enjoying it (not meaning to anthropomorphize the behaviour too much) or if the female is simply trying to get away from a doggedly determined lustful male!! Anyways, Roberto is quite sure that the pursuing ray was a mobula as its mouth was not located terminally. Soooooo, the question is whether he might have witnessed a prelude to interspecies sex!?!
Read MoreSo there we were, towards the end of our dive, coming around the north end of Roca Partida and swimming through an enormous school of jacks when, HOLY COW, a group of very large Galapagos sharks swam right up to us and started circling around. I had never seen anything like it.
Read MoreJust to top things off, four giant manta rays came into to the rock and spent “quality time” with our divers, gliding by close enough to touch. Interestingly, there were very few silky sharks, and divemasters Sten, Tricia and A.J. speculate that the silkies may have been intimidated by all the other sharks. Diving the Revillagigedos (Socorro Island) is not always hot but man, when it’s on, it is RED HOT DIVING!!
Read MoreThe really cool thing was that the currents of cold water brought crystal clear visibility with divers able to see the bottom 240 feet below them!! Divers reported the usual groups of white tip reef sharks hanging out in various caves and oblivious to divers around them. Two of the divers saw a 5-foot long silky shark hunting at very high speed with the “lunch fish” been eaten right in from of them. A Galapagos shark came in very close to the divers and the incredible visibility made it possible for them to identify one great hammerhead and two scalloped hammerheads swimming along the bottom!!
Read MoreHighlights included a huge bait ball of skipjacks being hunted by silky sharks and 100-pound yellowfin tuna, a group of five hammerhead sharks that approached within 40 feet of the divers and a blue water drift dive looking for pelagics. All the usual Roca Partida critters were present, including over 30 white tip reef sharks, silky and Galapagos sharks and some curious wahoo.
Read MoreWe are all VERY excited about journeying down to Clipperton on the first ever non-scientific diving trip there. I recently had a nice chat with the Captain of the San Diego-based Royal Star when he was in the Revillagigedos and he mentioned that the shark population at Clipperton Island is rebounding nicely after being decimated by illegal longline fishermen in 1998 – so our fingers are tightly crossed on that one.
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