Location: Abeam San Clemente Island, California Channel Islands, USA Captain Rob is in command and I have been shoreside ever since the Nautilus Explorer departed Steveston on August 17th. The start of our Guadalupe Island 2008 great white shark season is just around the corner and it’s time to get the boat down to […]
Read MoreSilky, Galapagos, and hammerhead sharks made numerous appearances, along with large schools of yellowfin tuna, almaco jacks, trevally, and the innumerable triggerfish and reef animals that we’ve come to expect.
Read MoreThere was a coldwater current running past the island steadily for the whole two days, and with it came excellent visibility and a great amount of hammerhead, silky, Galapagos, whitetip, and silvertip sharks. That’s on top of the friendly wahoo, the massive schools of tuna, the unique photographing opportunity of a moray eel wrapped comfortably around resting whitetip sharks, and big schools of triggerfish, big-eyed trevally, jacks, and other familiar faces.
Read MoreThe upside of this cooling is that the larger oceanic sharks start appearing. We saw a group of 6 silvertip sharks and 4 galapagos sharks patrolling “fish alley” where the large schools of jacks and bonitos hang out. There seems to be a hierarchy in the shark world whereby silkys are displaced by galapagos which in turn are displaced by silvertips.
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.
Read MoreInterestingly, one group of divers reported observing behaviour that reminded me very much of the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island. Last season we would see 2 white sharks swim side-by-side as if they were measuring their respective lengths against each other. The smaller animal would then peel off into the blue. The larger animal presumably being the dominant animal. I “think” we saw the same thing with 2 giant manta rays. 2 animals (a chevron manta and a larger black manta) swam in tight formation in a vertical pattern. The smaller chevron then peeled off and disappeared into the blue. Presumably, just like the white sharks, the large black manta ray established it’s dominance and got to hang out with a human.
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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