On the second dive, the giant mantas made an appearance! We had relocated to a site called The Canyon, where we had numerous sightings of hammerhead sharks, most notably a very large and curious fellow who made several circles about the same cleaning station.
Read MoreAs we ascended to our safety stops, riding in the mild surge, finally there they were! Two mantas, one black, one chevron, stayed with us on the last 5 minutes of our first dive, and every diver was making the most of their air to stay with these wonderful creatures.
Read MoreFinally we went to a new site on the north east side of San Benedicto and found some interesting rock formations with lots of reef life and what appeared to be a moray eel the colour of a Clarion Angelfish. Definitely a place for further investigation. On the run home we came up with a list of possible names for the newly explored sites including Whale Sound, Booby Prize, The Act of Waiting on a Rock and Watching Barnacles although none have been adopted at this time. Maybe a few more dives on the sites will bring out the personality of the sites and the names will become obvious.
Read MoreThen off to Socorro to check in with the Mexican navy and dive Punta Tosca with the manta, tiger and hammerhead sharks on dive day 2 followed by Cabo Pearce on dive day 3. Our first dive at Cabo Pearce had great visibility and almost no current. It was a relaxing dive with a few sightings of dolphins and sharks off the outer point along with a group of Barberfish patiently waiting for something to clean. At times they even moved over to the scuba divers to see if they needed a clean.
Read MoreOver the last 4 years of operating around Socorro/Revillagigedos Islands, we have had the occasional problem with giant mantas swimming into descent, ascent and anchor lines. This is obviously upsetting to us so today I implemented my idea for a “manta rope.” We took a length of 3/4″ bright yellow 3 strand anchor line and spliced short chunks of horizontal streamers of yellow, blue and green rope into it. The idea being that the descent/ascent/anchor line will be so brightly coloured and “big” that the mantas can’t help but see it. In a perfect world, our highly intelligent manta friends may even be so fascinated by the manta rope that they will want to swoop, loop and fly around “their” rope. Fingers crossed.
Read MoreSince the discovery of an illegal fishing net draped across a reef at southwest Benedicto wall, there has been some heated and emotional discussions onboard the Nautilus Explorer regarding the abhorrent practice of shark finning, shark fin soup and the whole issue of illegal fishing – especially in a protected biosphere reserve such as Socorro/Revillagigedos. These are huge issues and there are no easy answers.
Read MoreWe decided to try a new site on the north point of San Benedicto Island and it was GREAT!! We spotted 5 mantas on the surface before anchoring, and we saw them during the dive also. We also had 3 green turtles who stayed with us. Above us on this ridge we had huge yellowfin tunas and also dolphins. So we decided to do our last scuba dive of the trip here as well. On the safety stop one of our divemasters got his thumb bitten as a goodbye present from a Cortez Chub.
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