So we started up with high expectations at Socorro and getting out on the lava flow in search of this big group of hammerhead sharks that we have seen here and the very very good encounters of the giant mantas that we have had this year. And we dove and we dove and dove and […]
Read MoreRoca Partida woke up this afternoon! Along with some lively action on the surface was some equally live action below with sharks of all kinds lurking about. Duskies, Silkies, Galapagos, White tips, Silver tips and Hammerheads were converging on the Rock today in a shark convention it seemed. While the Nautilus held fast in […]
Read MoreThis morning we were escorted toward San Benedicto Island by a huge pod of leaping Bottlenose Dolphins. Some of the jumps were easily 15 feet into the air. The Captain said he was looking one in the eye as he stood on the bridge. The beautiful Baja sunrise lit up the impressive volcanic island as […]
Read MoreWe’ve been watching one poor old Galapagos shark with a fish hook and leader stuck in his gill plate all season. I’ve become quite certain that Galapagos sharks are resident rather than transient because we see this guy every time we dive Roca Partida. The sad thing is that he has been getting skinnier and skinnier and now looks quite emaciated. The alarming thing is that his behaviour is changing and he is now coming in VERY close to divers. He swam up to me this afternoon and it’s the first time that I had a gut feeling that I had better “watch out” around him. An understandable behaviour I guess if he is sick and starving to death. Damn, I wish there was an easy way to get rid of the illegal longliner fishing boats.
Read MoreNone of us are ever going to forget the 1/2 million booby birds (and their incredibly cute chicks) that we saw, the 5 million bright orange land crabs, the amazing number of moray eels and their bizarre behaviour, the thick “clouds” of black and big-eye jacks, heavy schools of black triggerfish and rainbow runners, the endemic iridescent blue Clipperton angelfish and the coconut groves, white sand beaches and beautiful setting.
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 MoreWe all fell in love with a really tiny baby silky that had to be a newborn, and couldn’t have been more than 20″ in length – AT MOST! He was very, very cute and our guests promptly named him NafNaf. NafNaf was certainly a fearless shark, and he kept on getting in the way of the larger sharks to the point of snatching a piece of fish out of the mouth of one of the big guys! All of our hearts went out to him.
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