They started the day out at the Canyon dive site at San Benedicto Island, and on the first dive, two guests took some fantastic images of an adult female humpback whale and her calf. Divers also saw five Silvertip sharks at the main cleaning station. One closed circuit rebreather diver had the fantastic good fortune of sighting something that none of us had ever seen before – a verified school of approximately 100 juvenile Silvertip sharks. Incredible!!
Read MoreCaptain Dave reports that their transit from San Benedicto Island back to Cabo San Lucas has been beautiful and calm with virtually no movement on the ship. Guests are relaxing, sunbathing and packing their gear away. Dave is planning on getting into Cabo San Lucas early enough for adventuresome guests to be able to see a different type of wildlife…spring break in Cabo is something that has to be seen to be believed!!
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 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.
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!
Read MoreMeasuring 91 metres by 45 metres by 34 metres high, the island is actually the lava plug from a volcano that gradually eroded away around it. It is an amazing 11,000 feet deep around the volcano and we gingerly anchor the Nautilus Explorer in 245 feet of water very close to the lava tube. Roca Partida is a “magnet” for mantas, sharks of all kinds, wahoo, tuna, dorado and all other manner of sub-tropical fish.
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