📷 By the amazing Howard Hall We are wrapping up another fantastic trip to this beautiful archipelago. The weather has not been the most cooperative this time but we were able to get in some amazing dives none the less. We started out the trip on the sheltered side of San Benedicto at the Canyon, with […]
Read MoreWaking up to a Starlit Sky at Roca Partida, moon high in the sky standing on the top lounge deck of the Nautilus Explorer; trying to take it all in as you wake up. Everyone is up early for a remarkable Dawn dive, as the crew are up top, captain manning the Crane and getting […]
Read MoreVis: 100 ft – 140 ft Temp: 82 degrees Weather: raining at morning,cloudy,bit windy but warm enough. Seas: bit chopy at morning, soft swell Comments: Manta day, since the first dive till the last. Manta’s all the time and in the last 2 dives, 3 mantas together outstanding interaction with the divers, first dive dolphins […]
Read MoreTwo whale sharks. One was the size of a bus! 45 – 50 feet long and a little brother of maybe 21 feet. We also got visitedby giant manta rays. It was a good start and we had the whale sharks around the rock for the rest of the day. We also saw whitetip reef sharks of course but just a few Galapagos and silvertip sharks – likely because of the relatively warm water?! A good day. At night with no moon we were surrounded by about a 50 silky sharks chasing flying fish in the floodlights of the Nautilus Explorer.
Read MoreFar and away the coolest thing we saw on our afternoon dives were spawning sea urchins! Yup, we happened across in-water sexual reproduction as the urchins released sperm into the water column. It looked almost as if the urchins were sending up smoke signals with puffs of white “smoke” (sperm) spiraling up from the top of these amazing echinaderms. You have to think that it is a very long shot that eggs are going to get fertilized this way but that’s what happens.
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 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.
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