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First trip of the season to Santa Barbara – shy bat rays, angel sharks and thousands of sealions – California Channel Islands – divemaster log – July 28, 2010

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Sealions and Angel sharks.

This is the first time we go to Santa Barbara Island this season.

We went in to a small sealion rocery that we had a tip of. Not very deep the deepest I managed get was 16 m 55ft. Water was really clear until you got in to 20 ft or 7 m. This place has a lot of Bat rays in between the sand and the kelp. resting at the bottom, they are really shy and dont like bubbles at all! so best way to approach them is being at the bottom and hold your breath. Funny looking ray and there where many of them. At the sandy bottom around the island we also found several Angel sharks, very camoflaged and a very cool looking shark, Looks a bit like the wobbegong and we often found them being in pair. we went in to the south side of the island to the sealion coloni. hera are tousands of them I beleive! We went in to the shallow , but viz was really low cause of the surge and we turnred out the very dense kelp and got clear water and got harassed by young sealions.

Our last dive site was … not that great.. Bare rock and a million sea urchins and brittle stars… except of the last dive we had a great day here and sun is up and the sky is clear blue.

Surface conditions: 5-10 knots wind calm sea with a little shop on the windy side. Sunny after a grey morning 23C

Underwater conditions: Clear at 25 ft Viz ca 15-18m ca 60 ft A bit of surge on shallow waters. Very mild current 60 f 14-16 C.

Dive guide Sten Sent via satellite.

Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Channel Islands, Destinations, Santa Barbara Island, kelp, sealions, shark | No Comments »

Exploratory trips are always a challenge – scuba diving up and down the coast of Baja California – divemaster and guest blog

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

Day 2 Diving on the Nautilus Xplorer.

I was personally afraid of the water being as cold as yesterday (52f!), but found that today was warmer and an absolutely awesome dive day.

The idea behind this trip is exploration, and so far ti has been what we have done.

Today in San Benito Island, we dove 2 parts of the ‘east’ part of this Island. Water was 61f around with blue water and amazing visibility.

Being a ‘ Caribean ‘ diver i’m used to good visibility and today was the day.  We found harbor seals and California seals.

The dives went great. First dive depth around 60 feet and second dive a 40+- feet.

Amazing kelp forest on dive number two with lots and lots of fish and some other marine life (i was paying attention to the seals…)

The crew have been amazing and i always ask to my self, when do they sleep as they are always there at all times going and coming, keeping us super spoiled.

Day two for Diving aboard the NautilusXplorer has been awesome. Great crew, great people, great dives.

Jorge Tapia – Mexico

Ensenada hacia Islas de San Benito y Cedros .

Despues de un fabuloso tour en los vinedos de Santo Tomas salimos de Enesenada hacia Roca Ben (la ultima vez que la visitamos fue en 2004 ) se trata de un pinaculo muy cerca de isla San Martin.  Roca Ben es maravilloso y  con un habitat unico con aguas frias y surgencia profunda, la cobertura de invertebrados es espectacular con esponjas enormes, anemomonas, sargazo palma y muchos colores por todos lados. Hoy la visita anual a islas de San Benito con sus magnificos y pristinos  bosques de kelp , muy buena visibilidad, abulones , langostas ,   una densidad de peces espectacular ademas de los lobos finos de Guadalupe, focas de puerto, lobos californianios y elefante marinos.  Los bosques generan habitats marinos comparables con los bosques de tierra y en el libro Sea of Light de Richard Salas (que viene abordo en esta ocasion)  se muestran muy buenas imagenes de ellos.

Estaremos en San Benito y Cedros en  los proximos dias en algunos de los mejores lugares de buceo de todo el Pacifico de Mexico , fotos y videos en unos dias.

Roberto  Pacifico Expediciones Mexico

Islas San Benito

Horn sharks and massive kelpforests.  After been exploring Isla Cedros Yester day with not the best viz but a huge dense and deep kelp forest where the viz actually really cleared up at 90  ft , but with a temperature of 54 F about 12 C!!! The temperature has been all over much lower then we ever calculated with.. So we are back in San Benitos and making 3 dives. It felt a bit sad to leave San benito Cause the last day gave us a fantastic beautiful kelp dive not deep just around 40-25 ft but just so beautiful. Green eal grass on the bottom and Californian Sealion playing with us. Last dive we have found a rock that in one place you can find hornshark in almost every crack in the rock, beutiful purple hydro coral. and loads of fish. Really massive Sheep heads.

Surface condition: Calm seas. Mostly cloudy , temp 20 C

UW condition: Viz not so good for San Benito but still ca 10-15 m , No current and temp 60 F ca 15 C.

Water was warmer and visibility up to 25 meters. Good interactions with the Guadalupe fur seals. Nice pictures of the island and shark fin on the water !!! (…just attached to Jorge’s tank :-)

Angel , Spain

From blue whales and dolphins to sharks and sea lions!

It is our first trip of the season and, after an admittedly frantic start, we have now settled in to our usual, exceptional pace. Yesterday we had the extreme pleasure of being met by a large group of blue whales. Larry, the engineer, will tell you there were hundreds of them… but in reality it was more like dozens. But when was the last time you saw dozens of huge blue whales?!?! Amazing. Then, after the whales said goodbye, a pod of dolphins came over to take advantage of the bow wave. They jumped and squealed for awhile, much to our delight, before they too, took off into the great, wide blue.

Today we dove with horn and leopard sharks in the morning, and sea lions in the afternoon. For the macro lovers, several different species of nudibrancs. The diversity of life out here is really something special!

After a delicious meal of kebabs, hummus and pita bread, we anchored for the night in a very calm, quiet bay of sorts. As I write this, there are sea lions playing in the dark off the stern of the boat. Do they ever sleep??

Our new hostess, (and my best friend!) Daniela, has joined us for her maiden voyage aboard the Nautilus Explorer. She has worked on many boats in the Caribbean and brings a great mix of fun, personality and professionalism to our crew. If you have the pleasure to meet her, she may regale you with stories of her parents escape from  Chile, or perhaps sing you her favourite Jason Mraz song (if you ask nicely!). We are all very happy to have her on board!

Looking forward to the rest of our exploratory diving over the next few days. I wonder how many new underwater friends we can discover!

‘Till next time,

Hostesses Ashley and Daniela

Posted in Animals, California Sealions, Captains Log, Destinations, Guadalupe Island, Guadalupe fur seals, Nautilus Explorer, Nudibranch, San Benitos, blue whale, dolphin, kelp, sealions, shark | No Comments »

From Socorro to the Sea of Cortez we saw it all :: from seahorses to mantas, sharks, sea lions and even nudibranchs — dive guide and first mate blog – June 9, 2010

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

From South to North, Big and Small, We saw it all: Sea Horses, Mantas, Sharks, Sea Lions and Nudibranchs.

Let us remember back a few days to those spectacular dives at Socorro where we left you off with our last Dive-Master Log. Our cruise North into the Sea of Cortez, was very smooth until we got close to the southern Baja peninsula where different currents and winds meet. There, for a few hours, the going got rough but once we made it into the Gulf of California it smoothed back down, allowing us a good nights rest before our first dive in our new enviroment. Being only a couple of hundred miles north you would expect similar conditions, but that is absolutely not the case. The Sea of Cortez is colder and this time of year there is a lot of algae and plankton in the water making the visibility somewhat limited. But, with so much food in the water you also have a lot of life.

Our first dive in this area was on the southern tip of Cerralvo island, a site I don’t have the luxury of visiting very often due to it being a little to far to visit from La Paz where I have lived for the past ten years. This site is Spectacular!! It is a long shallow ridge that is covered in very healthy coral that makes a labyrinthine maze ideal habitat for all kinds of animals including a small colony of California Sea Lions and plenty of grunts, goatfish and barber-fish.  In the afternoon we did a couple of dives at La Reina reef, which like always, lived up to its name of Queen of reefs. There were Sea Lions on the Rock and all kinds of beautiful life in the water. Jessie (DM) had told everybody in the briefing that this was a good site to search for sea horses and true enough, a yellow and an orange sea horse were spotted.

The following day we did an early dive at the Salvatierra, an old ferry boat wreck that sunk in 1975 and is now nearly totally destroyed but still makes for an interesting dive. Midday we went on a quest to El Mogote to see if we could find a Whale Shark to snorkel with. Unfortunately after two hours of careful searching we came out empty handed, they just didn’t want to be found!  We Spent the afternoon at Suwani Reef diving with huge schools of spot tail grunts, barracudas, goat fish and scads, but my highlight of the day was a pair of Cortez stingrays that one of the guests spotted. The male stingray held on to the female so hard that when she swam away he just stayed stuck. We did a night dive here too which was calm and beautiful.

Yesterday we began the day diving at Fang Ming Wreck and then spent the rest of the day at Los Islotes, probably the most famous dive site in the area due to the permanent colony of California Sea Lions that lives there. Everybody spent most of the day enjoying the magnificent show that these animals always provide.  This Morning we did our two last dives of this magnificent trip again in La Reina with the Se Lions and the Sea Horses, before motoring back towards Cabo, where tomorrow morning this chapter of the adventures of the Nautilus Explorer will come to a happy end. I believe everybody will leave with a smile on their face and a warm heart because of the beauty and greatness of these waters!

Surface Conditions: Windy and cool in the morning developing into a very hot calm mid-day and cool breezy afternoon. A few small swells less than a foot in the morning with calm waters the rest of the time.

Underwater Conditions: The visibility was somewhat limited at between 60ft in the best dive site, and 25ft in the worst case. Temperature was quite cool between 71F and 73F. There was no current most of the time and when we did encounter one, it was very mild and totally negotiable.

DM Peter

Greetings,  Well here we are, at the end of another successful season of diving at the Revillagigedo (Socorro) islands and the Sea of Cortez. And what a season it has been! I’ve been on board since the middle of February, and it was intriguing to witness the dynamism of the environment evinced in my 10 trips this season.

During the winter months, we were graced with the presence of the seasonal visitors to the islands, the humpback whales. These beautiful animals provided a constant source of fascination from the surface, and an unending hope that maybe we might be one of the lucky ones to see them under water! Ah, but huge and majestic as they may be, they can be frustratingly coy. Still, although the chances may be hit and miss, we were blessed with a few magical encounters.

As the months rolled on, temperature and humidity rose, bringing with it more energy to the above water conditions, characterized by more rapidly changing wind and sea states. It also brought an end to the humpback whale season, but as we bade farewell to the whales, so we gave welcome to the sea lions and fish-filled reefs of the Sea of Cortez!

It’s always nice to shake up the routine a bit, and I very much enjoyed the chance to be onboard for our “combo” trips between Socorro and the calm, beautiful scenery of the waters surrounding La Paz, Mexico.  But amongst all that diversity, all the different experiences that touch our trips in one way or another, there was always one constant to look forward to: the eerie, strangely intelligent, curious, and stunningly beautiful giant manta rays.

Leaving the Socorro islands at the end of a season (and our more seasoned clients may attest to this as well) can feel like saying adieu to old friends, and although I may have been working in these islands for the better part of 4 years, I never fail to be touched by the chance to see the mantas.  I could go on – the scalloped hammerhead, silky, Galapagos, silvertip, white tip, and even whale sharks; the bottle nose dolphins, the false killer whales, and pilot whales; the turtles and moray eels; the schooling yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and jacks; and the abundant populations of reef fish. But to do it all justice would require more space than I have here. Suffice it to say I’ve found there’s something for everyone who is enamoured with the natural world.

Time to go now – there’s always work to be done!  Even on my birthday, which was celebrated in fine style by being serenaded by our recent group of German guests! Our chef Juan Carlos even fattened me up with a delicious birthday cake.  Until next season Socorro, vaya con Dios. Next up, Guadalupe and the great white sharks!

Sandy Curtis,   First Mate,   Nautilus Explorer

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Posted in Animals, California Sealions, Captains Log, Destinations, El Mogote, False killer whales, Galapagos Shark, Giant Mantas, Humpback Whale, Nautilus Explorer, Nudibranch, Revillagigedos, Salvatierra, Sea of Cortez, Silky Sharks, Socorro, Tuna, Whalesharks, sealions, shark, stingray, whitetip reef shark | No Comments »

We expected a lot from this trip and so far it even got much better!! After the first 5 days of diving we have seen more .. (* note from Captain Mike – this is the nature of big animal diving – some trips are super hot and the diving sizzles while other trips are quieter. Not every trip is going to be this fantastic… darnit *) Guest blog – June 4, 2010

Friday, June 4th, 2010

It is easy to get jaded about diving when you work on the Nautilus Explorer. For example, I went diving in Hawaii this past April and, although the dive was quite pretty, I couldn’t help but feel a little unfulfilled when the dive was over. No sharks, no mantas, no dolphins…. This afternoon I dived “The Boiler” at San Benedicto and Socorro  - if I had wings I would be soaring with sheer delight! Even though I’ve dived this site many times, and have played with the giant mantas many times, it still amazes me just how friendly and interactive they really are. As soon as I jumped off the back deck of Nautilus and started my decent to the rock, I was very pleased to see FOUR giant mantas waiting for me. I went down to about 17 metres and was very quickly surrounded by big, beautiful, black-and-white mantas. Above me, below me, beside me – eye to eye, finger tip to wing tip. Wow. I didn’t even have a chance to swim around The Boiler because the mantas stayed with me the entire dive! 40 minutes with some very friendly mantas. Can it get any better?
‘Till next time…     Hostess Ashley

We had four fantastic dives at Punta Tosco with lots of MANTAS, DOLPHINS, SHARKS!!! What else can a diver wish? We found everything we expected and even more!!! Lets wait for tomorrow.   Andrea from Austria

Faboulous Diving at Punta Tosca!!!  Not only MANTA rays, but also DOLPHINS, playing games with us on 3 of 4 dives!!! Nice reef with lot’s of fish, big big lobsters and stunning swarms. For me it was the first time diving with dolphins in more then 970 dives, so big, big smile and lot’s of fun. This trip is really great from both diving and crew how does everything to get us happy and smile… now that we had those, were snorkeling with sharks and already WHALESHARK and many other sharks at rocca partida, only the whales itself and seals are missing… Hello from a very happy diver :) Ruth/Germany

We had expected a lot from this trip – and so far it even got much better! After the first 5 days of diving we have seen more than in several dive holidays before – and most of the animals not just only seen but long time contact – interaction… the whaleshark we had circeling around us for more than half an hour at one dive, the dolphins kept ‘playing’ with us and the HUGE (!!!) mantas enjoy circeling and looping around in our bubbles. Even the first hammerhead shark we saw… and are looking forward to the next days of diving with this very professional – and all of them absolutely enthusiasticly – diving and helping crew. But now we will enjoy another fine dinner (my girlfriend already wants to marry the chef cook) being served by to really charming young ladies ;-)  Andreas Ritzenhofen/ Germany

We had a nice day today, my first interaction with a manta ray. Wow!!!… I think one of the best dives I ever had the last 10 years. I ll be sure we coming back. Service from the crew is unbelievable.( 24 hours eating, sleeping, diving.) Never seen this before like so professional.  Roman and Elvira/ Germany


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Posted in Destinations, Giant Mantas, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Nautilus Explorer, Punta Tosca, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, Socorro, The Boiler, Whalesharks, dolphin, shark | No Comments »

Diving at Roca Partida has been GREAT!!!! We could see the bottom at 250 feet and a giant whale shark posed for us.. crew and guest blog – 02 June, 2010.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Dancing with a Whale Shark at Roca Partida

The past two days diving here at Roca Partida have been great. We have had some of the clearest water ever, we could even see the bottom at 250′. Yesterday, on our first dive we were slowly drifting along the back side of the rock when Peter (the other DM) started swimming and making the shark sign over his head. He was pointing into the depths as a large spotted image appeared. And enormous Whale Sharks swam right up between the group and continued on her way. Everyone was very excited. It was a first for many of the guests on board… Hurray!!!

The next dive, we all entered the water with high hopes of seeing our spotted friend again, but instead we swam amongst a huge school (+1000) Skip Jacks. As the school swirled and circled the rock, we noticed that groups of 5 or 6 would break off from the group and rush upwards and spawn. It looked like a ferris-wheel of spawning fishes. Visibility went down a little in that area. There were a few Silky sharks and Galapagos sharks following the school waiting for their chance to catch an unsuspecting Jack. When we went into the water for our third dive, we found the east side of the rock had a smoking current so we all let ourselves drift around to the lee side. Apparently,the Whale Shark had the same idea as we did… take shelter from the current. Appearing again from the depths, the Whale Shark swam right through the middle of our group and continued until she encountered the head current coming around the southern point of the island. There, she turned around and came through the group again, as if she was posing for the photographers in the group. Once again she turned around when she hit the current at the north point and continued the same pattern for the rest of our dive. It was as if she was just another one of the group. A photographer’s dream. Everyone got to spend a little time with her.

By the next dive, the current had slackened and we only got one glimpse of the Whale Shark and she said her goodbyes. With great viz and tones of schools of fish around, the last dive of the day was very peaceful. A few sharks we seen as the light levels slowly dropped. It was a great day of diving. Today was full of sharks. On the early dive today, we were met by over 100 Black Jacks. They are impressive on their own, but in a massive school, they are beautiful. We also had several really big Tuna swim over our heads a few times. In the depths, we saw a few sharky silhouettes. It was not till the second dive that the sharks came around. A couple of people came out of the dive exclaiming that they saw two Mantas, but after examining the video, we are not sure if they were Mantas or Mobulas. During the last two dives, we saw the graceful Silver-Tip Sharks swimming along with some big fat Galapagos Sharks. There were even a couple of Hammerhead Sharks spotted.

There were more and more sharks and more and more current. There were only a few of us who did the fourth dive, but we were rewarded with plenty of shark action.

Surface conditions: Partly Cloudy, clearing up in afternoon… beautiful sunset. Light breeze throughout the day. Air temperature warm (74-76F).

Underwater conditions: Visibility +100′, Water temperature 73F, 100′ thermocline dropping to 71F, Currents strong on most dives, but there is always a lee side to every rock.

DM- Jessie “Sharkchick”

Our second trip with Nautilus Explorer.   We enjoyed the first trip so much, we had to do it again!  The crews are amazing in their care, concern, great personalities and knowledge of the area.   And of course the Socorro  diving is unique in so many ways.  - – - We will never forget the giant mantas in the Boiler at San Benedicto Island,  who played with us for at least a half hour.  Bob had the thrill of one coming down over him as he was adjusting his camera,  and “hugging” him with his cephalic fins.  - – - We look forward to diving with the playful sea lions which was a highlight of our previous trip, as well as snorkling with whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez.  Great trip! Do it!   Pat and Bob Watson

So I did a dive at Roca Partida today. I was hoping that the  whale shark from yesterday was still around. Alas, he had moved on. But there were some very neat happenings on my dive despite the absent whale shark. First I watched a group (of about 6) silkie sharks on the hunt. I love how stealthy and menacing they are when they’re looking for food. Then I spotted an octopus out in the open, which is rare around here. He was very beautifully colored and had his tentacles all spread out as if to display fully his beauty. Then, as I turned the corner I noticed it got very dark, very quickly. I looked up to see a school, in fact an entire city!, of skipjack tuna. There were thousands – they actually blocked out the light from the sun! The divemasters told me its their time for spawning right now, which would explain why they were chasing each other. It was really quite a sight to behold! Silvery fish darting every which way, only to run in to more silvery fish! I’ve seen large schools before, but never like the one I saw today.

Tonight for dinner we had the famous Nautilus burgers. It is always funny to me when the guests come in to the dining room for dinner and their eyes grow to the size of saucers when they see the feast laid before them – burgers of all types  - lamb, chicken, beef, veggie –  with all the fixin’s, including buns made from scratch that evening, sauteed mushrooms and onions, corn, french fries…. and as if that were not enough, crepes with ice cream and berries for dessert! Simply delicious! Tomorrow, diving at Socorro. Can’t wait to hear what adventures the diver’s will have there!
‘Till next time!

Hostess Ashley


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Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Manta, Nautilus Explorer, Octopus, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, Sea of Cortez, Silky Sharks, Socorro, The Boiler, Tuna, Whalesharks, shark, silvertip reef shark | No Comments »

25 different species of coral at Socorro Island and more diversity than in all the mexican pacific + voyage into the Sea of Cortez – crew and guest log – May 28, 2010

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

This is my last trip of the season to Socorro Island, with a group of German divers and a mexican researcher Laura Escoboza which has a Master degree in Marine Biodiversity and conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Ca, USA. I made a couple of dives with her and she share her observation she found 25 different species of coral. These islands is where you can find more coral diversity in all the mexican pacific. Between those species you can find pocillopora captata, P. Verruscosa, P. Meandrina, pavona gigantea, to name a few. Between the dive sites the Boiler hold the most variety, although it is the smaller place. Most of the coral larvas come from the Indopacific sea where is located the golden triangle of coral. I found this interesting and is good to have researchers working on this amazing place which is too remote and hard to come but thanks to the people like Capt. Mike Lever, owner of the Nautilus Explorer, and other dive operators it has been possible. Also Mike Lever been a pioneer and founder of the Nautilus Foundation in cooperation with other dive operators in the area and thanks to all our guests that have been helping with their donations and been involved in benefit of our beloved islands, Mantas, sharks, dolphins, you name it we have it! We hope to protect them. Soon will be time to leave to another spectacular place, a new adventure Guadalupe Island Great White Shark submersible cage diving. I can’t wait!  If you want to know how the Germans liked my last trip, they said Fantastic!   Divemaster Pedro

Another adventure in the Sea of Cortez, since the beautiful sunrise that I saw today to the calm ocean, it’s interesting how some guests don’t want to miss any dives, and others are happy to enjoy the sun and the great view of the hills. This is a group of Germans, tranquilo, and very nice they get happy to see everyday the sunset. They look like they are so relaxed and are without worries. That is they way to have a vacations! Diving, relaxing and see all the wonderful places that we have, like Socorro and the Sea of Cortez. One more day in the paradise, what else can we ask for?   Hostess Silvia

Today was an exciting day for the divers. First, whale sharks, then playing with sea lions, then exploring a wreck! All in one day! What an adventure! Tonight for dinner we had an assortment of delicious pastas. It’s one of my favourite dinners of the whole trip – I’m a sucker for spaghetti! And Juan Carlos does a delicious meat sauce with lamb. Mmm mmm! Oh, and my caramel cinnamon squares this afternoon were a huge hit! Yay!

Sadly, the trip is nearing it’s end. One more day of diving in the Sea of Cortez. We’re going back to Los Islotes to play with the sea lions again tomorrow. I’ll have a chance to get in the water too, and I’ll be sure to bring my camera! The divers have already taken some great photos of the sea lions, I’m excited to get some pictures of my own!    ’Till next time…   Hostess Ashley

Another great day with a Great crew on an awesome ship.  Besides the weather being great so was the diving and company.  To start with I took a few guests on a site seeing tour and had some close experiences with some Sea Lions,we took some pictures and almost got close enough to pet them.  Later in the day I had a great dive with our friendly Mate,Sandy.  We saw lots of tropical fish and played with a young sea lion (hope the pictures and video turns out)  Off to La Reina.  That’s all for now
Chief Engineer Larry

The trip is about to end, tomorrow will be our last diving day, and suddenly you want to extend the day more than 24 hours. It has been a one of a kind experience! Socorro Island is a  healthy ecosystem; you can find little species, such as sea cucumbers and urchins, all the way to the big ones (silky sharks, mantas, false killer whales). Also Revillagigedo represents the most diverse place in the Mexican Pacific regarding corals, a total of 25 species have been register here and it exists the possibility to make the list longer since the islands are a stepping point of the larvae that make it from the Indo-Pacific. I also noticed that many fish species are some how “unafraid” and really curious, I never had experience something like that and maybe it has to do with the fact that there is no fishing allowed and that the amount of scuba divers is really reduce. Hopefully all the conservation efforts that have been put up will grow and continue, Nautilus Explorer is one of the several actors pushing for better and greater actions. At the end you will have a true wild diving experience!! And to top it all we had the chance to visit several places at Sea of Cortez. The experience couldn’t have been so great with out the terrific crew members that help you and go beyond what ever you need. And if you feel like learning how to fill tanks and basic boat procedures, they will do that for you. Thanks to all for making the trip so fun and unforgettable. I leave with an expanded horizon of ecological information and, most importantly, with good friends.    Laura Escobosa

Photos taken by Robert Wilpernig and DM Sten Johannson

Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Great White Shark, Guadalupe Island, Guest Blog, Los Islotes, Manta, Nautilus Explorer, Revillagigedos, Sea of Cortez, Silky Sharks, Socorro, Socorro Island, The Boiler, Whalesharks, dolphin, sealions, shark | No Comments »

Baby whale shark at Roca partida but diving is otherwise a bit slower than normal – dive guide, crew and guest log – 18 MAY 2010

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

We started of with our first day in San Benedicto after a smooth ride down from cabo San Lucas. canyon did not get so much so we moved over to the Boiler and had both better vizibility and one big black manta that got interest of us , but went off after an 10 min. It was a female and we recognice her from  before.

As weather is staying calm we moved over night to Roca partida and got into the water and had a baby whale shark!  We did not get as much shark as usual , but a bit better then last trip. Last trip we had tousands of yellowfin Tunas houndreds of Wahoos and the false Orcas.  This time so far the whale shark, and as well a group of dolphins that came by spinning around us and then left us.  There are still a good number of wahoos around. We wispered in a couple of silver tips and Galapagos sharks. We spotted hammerheads , but very deep at ca 160-180 ft. The animals are there just did not get in real close to day. We are staying one more day tomorrow so let us see how it goes then.

Surface conditions: 15 knot wind, wind waves , but very shalloow swell/surge. Mostly cloudy. 26 C
Underwater conditions: Weak to medium current, not much of surge 24 C ca 75F Good viz ca 30 m , 100Ft No real termaclime.

Dive guide Sten

Hostess Blog
The first day of a new trip is always exciting for me. A brand new group of divers from different backgrounds with different stories to tell. 25 smiling faces walk through the door – 25 new names to remember! Everyone buzzing with anticipation of the adventure that awaits them at the Socorro Islands. Everyone is excited to see and interact with our “Friendly Giants”, the mantas. One woman has already told me that she is most excited to see the sharks. This is great news because we have 6 different species of sharks here at Socorro, including hammerheads which you can often see in large schools. In fact, just last week I was enjoying a dive at ‘The Canyon’ when I came upon a school of hammerhead sharks that was easily 40-50 strong!! I love watching them move through the water – stealthy and effortless – even though their head seems to be so awkwardly shaped! haha! Oops! Time to go bake today’s snack – cherry crumble!  ’Till next time.

Hostess Ashley

Before I started working on the Nautilus Explorer the last dive I made was 15 yrs ago in Campbell River, BC. Last week I made my first dive since then, at Roca Partida, Mexico. I saw lots of white-tip reef sharks, my first sharks ever seen underwater! I also a 10′ Galapagos shark! That got my adrenaline going. We saw big schools of wahoo, and a lot of other fish I’ve never seen before. I’ve been working here almost 2 months now and have enjoyed all aspects of the job immensely. The crew (especially Captain Gordon <–inserted by Captain Gordon), have been great to work with and I’m learning about a whole new work experience. A little different from the tow boats back in BC. Chief  Engineer Larry

This is Gabriele from Germany:

This is my first trip to Socorro and my first trip with the Nautilus Explorer. Within 2 days I had everything You could wish for: Starting with the Marine Life: 2 Baby Whalesharks, 1 Giant Manta, lots of sharks (tiger, grey, white tips, silver tips, longimanus), lots of swarm fish, makrels, tuna, You name it. But: This would not be possible without the help of this perfect ship: There is hardly a vessel that can match with the Nautilus Explorer: the expirience of the staff is excellent, the service is extraordinary. You always feel welcome and looked after, the courtesy and friendliness of the staff is unmatched, I enjoy every minute on board (and I only checked in two days ago….;-)))) ) Thank you very much.

El viaje ha sido espectacular. Estamos en el segundo dia y ya hemos visto tiburon ballena juvenil, mantarayas, tiburon martillo, miles de tiburones puntas blancas, tuna, makarelas. La vida marina de las islas del archipielago es impresionante, aun es posible ver predadores tope algo que es dificil encontrar en lugares costeros. El staff es muy atento y te ayudan en cualquier problema (van mas alla de lo necesario para hacerte sentir bien, GRACIAS!!); el barco es bastante comodo y es mas amplio de lo que se pudiera pensar. Uff, pensar que aun faltan 10 dias mas en este paradisiaco archipielago y barco!!!  Laura Escobosa

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Posted in Animals, Cabo San Lucas, Captains Log, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Giant Mantas, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Nautilus Explorer, Orca, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, Socorro, The Canyon, Tiger Shark, Tuna, Wahoo, Whalesharks, dolphin, mexico, shark | No Comments »

The baby dolphins is almost full size now and it seems like the mother is pregnant again – San Benedicto Island, Socorro – divemaster log – May 1, 2010

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

So up to the boiler at San Benedicto again for the 3 day. This morning when we where checking out the boiler we got saluded by a school of bottle nose dolphins. They stayed around for quite a while. One is a mother and baby I ve seemn for 3 years and the baby is almost full size now and it seems like the mother is pregnant again. The dolphins were swishing by and turning around us and after a while the calmed down but where staying close but deep trying to call us down to the deep. As we are looking for mantas we stayed shallow to save air and bottom time. First just two chevron giant mantas passed. The came the same chevron female manta that we have filmed for two days and to day she stayed the who;e day again, each time we drifted off the boiler she got tired and disapeared , when we went back to the rock, it did not take long time until she was back again, over and over again.  In total we spotted 7-8 individual mantas today, but noone as friendly and curiouse as this girl.  Most has been females. only 1 male today.
Me and mate \Sandy where down to rerig Dr Bob Rubins transiver that got the float broken. It was set on 130 ft. While we worked on it we spotted a hammerhead shark. So on our ascent we went that direction. We wispered in the sharks and Oboj! It was sucsess full!! We got 5 silky sharks around us , very friesky and came charging at us in full speeed that we blocked them with our fins and camera. A medium size galapago shark came in and the two big guys, A bit intimidating, And on top of us a hammerhead shark where cirkiling around us. Not a bad dive just for resetting a receiver!! Nice to see there are sharks out there. I think that it was a evening dive helped. And there are a lot of yellow fin tunas and big and several wahoos out there as well.

Surface conditions: 27-28 C bit windy cloud and sunpoy but not bad for diving and small swell.

Underwater conditions: 25-26 C. Good viz 70-110ft. Very little surge and a bit of current

Dive guide  Sten

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Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Giant Mantas, Hammerhead shark, Silky Sharks, The Boiler, Tuna, bottlenose dolphin, shark | No Comments »

According to the size of the uterus, these sharks are ready to give birth + unbelievable humpback whale behavior around divers. April 24, 2010. Guest log.

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

My God!! Easily one of the best whale encounters of my life. A mother and calf humpback playing and relaxing around our ship, approaching snorklers for over an hour. At one point, the calf approached me to within a meter or two to look me directly in the eye. An amazing experience!!!!     Scott Davis

Today we started the shark tagging program in Mexican waters! One receiver was set on the west side of Roca Partida at 127 ft. The location is excellent and a shark cleaning station is very near from it. After we set it we saw three scalloped hammerheads 50 ft north of it. The sharks species seen during these dives were: scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini), Silver tip (Carcharhinus albimarginatus), Silky (C. falciformis), Galapagos (C. galapaguensis) and White tip reef (Triaenodon obesus). All the different individuals from these species were adults and in the case of the white tips two pregnant females were seen on the middle of the island at 50 ft. According to the size of the uterus and the behavior of the females (occasional movements out of their caves) they were ready to give birth. By 11:15 am we saw a humpback whale with her calf. They spend more than two hours very close to the Nautilus Explorer making the day unbelievable. The calf made several excursion to the surface in front of the divers and a few full body breaches were seen by free divers just in front of them. Several jacks (big eye trevally) were seen close to the surface traveling in pairs (female silvery and male dark) because they are on the reproductive period. A very nice day for science at the rock! Dr. Mauricio Hoyos

Another busy day. It started with last minute preparations for the deep dive at Roca Partida. Camera batteries and chip, programming the Sonde, Final prepping of the rebreather, readjusting my weighting for an additional layer of wetsuit for the colder water here at Roca Partida.  I am always ambivalent about deep diving here. The bottom is beautiful, and lush. It is mixed sand and rock topography, fairly flat at 255 feet deep. It has many animals absent from Clipperton, and uncommon in the rest of the Revillagigedo Islands, like gorgonian coral and basket stars. I enjoy the fauna and vista. The downside is it is colder, always very rough with up and down motions that make it impossible to hold a steady depth, and usually has a strong current running. All of this makes decompression not only difficult, but more dangerous than calmer water.

My goal for this dive was to shoot photographs to document the bottom for a paper being worked on by Gordon Handler at the LA Natural History Museum. I also carried the Sonde to collect water chemistry data.  The descent was uneventful, except I could not get the strobe tied to the anchor. It is a bright flashing light that I was going to use to help me find the anchor at the end of the dive so I could go back up the anchor line. The problem was that even at 250 feet deep the chain was moving up and down so much I could not thread a tie wrap (zip tie) to secure the strobe. After a few minutes of trying I gave up and continued the dive without the safety strobe.

While attempting to affix the strobe, my camera dome port hit the moving anchor chain, and was severely scuffed. This put a blurry place in all of my photographs, where it obscured the lens. That is about a $700 fix. Ouch!

I was somewhat narced on the dive, as I did not have enough helium in my supply cylinder. (“Narced” refers to narcosis, the feeling of being drunk from the nitrogen in the breathing mix at depth.) This made it more difficult to focus on my objectives and to make observations. In fact, when I looked at my photographs after the dive, I saw star fish in almost every picture that I did not see during the actual dive.

The ascent and decompression were as awful as I anticipated. I tried to stay at least ten feet below where I was supposed to be so as not to violate my decompression ceiling (that’s REALLY bad), but even with that the waves would occasionally kick me too shallow. It required a lot of focus and effort to maintain proper depth.

During one of the few lulls of relatively calm water, while I was 45 feet deep and minding my own business, I looked away from my depth gauge and my oxygen display and glanced about. I turned around, and noticed that someone had put a big mural of two humpback whales behind me. “That’s odd,” I thought. “WAIT!!! THERE ARE TWO HUMPBACK WHALES STARING AT ME!” They were less than ten feet from me, a momma and a calf, just hanging right in front of me, not moving at all. I started fumbling for my camera, which was hanging on a line from my rebreather harness. I quickly turned it on and took a few pictures.

Just so you know, this is NOT a common event. I have seen humpback whales out here before, once, but to get pictures of them I had to snorkel for nearly five hours, and I only got to glimpse them for maybe two minutes of that time. These two were just hanging there, staring at me! I hurriedly snapped off about 40 pictures before they swam off.

Needless to say, from this point of the decompression on, I was more attentive to my surroundings. Usually I just kind of zone out, letting my subconscious attend to depth, time and air. Not today. The humpback whales returned two more times, and I actually managed to grab a few decent pictures. It certainly helped make an activity that is usually as boring as watching paint dry far more entertaining! The crowd on the boat was also entertained. They had all been snorkeling and watching the whales from the surface. They said that the whales had been sitting right behind me for several minutes before I noticed them. They could tell the instant I saw them, because I gave a violent start. A moment or two later I started grabbing for my camera. They all thought it was very funny!

This dive was a little over four hours long. I sat out for an hour, and put new carbon dioxide absorbent in my rebreather. I then went back down with the group. The whales had gone, so we dove along the sides of the rock. I took pictures of white tip sharks, Clarion angelfish, and a pair of mating octopi. I surfaced after an hour and was ferried back to the boat.

We packed up, and left for San Benedicto Island. A night crossing to shorten the trip back to Cabo San Lucas.

April 23-24, 2010:  From Nicole

I did 4 dives today at San Benedicto; a place called the Canyons.  It was fantastic.  The wind was up a bit, and as the gusts blew across the water, they would sweep across the stark volcanic island and clouds of volcanic ash (from the 1954 eruption) would spill out in a plume and land on the water – and on the boat, in our eyes, in our teeth, and on our dive gear.  It was surreal, and sometimes dropped the visibility in the water.  It would go from being a deep clear blue to looking like someone had spilled flour in it.

I saw a few big hammerhead sharks.  They were a bit deeper than I was willing to go (I did not have a rebreather or mixed gas), so I descended to about 110 feet for a very short time and saw them just below me.  It was pretty cool.  They are such strange creatures with their giant hammer head shaped head with eyes way out on the ends.  These are scalloped hammerheads.

Then I turned my focus to all the amazing fish and the invertebrates.  Apparently, only about 50 feet away, 5 huge manta rays visited the other divers and came very close.  The mantas here are known for that behavior.  I had to settle for catching a glimpse of them from the surface.  But for me, coming here is way more than seeing mantas, so I was thrilled with my dives!

I am tired, pleased, and exhilarated.     Jeff B.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Bozanic, Scott Davis and Captain Gordon Kipp

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Posted in Animals, Cabo San Lucas, Clipperton Island, Galapagos Shark, Guest Blog, Hammerhead shark, Humpback Whale, Nautilus Explorer, Revillagigedos, Roca Partida, San Benedicto, Silky Sharks, hammerhead, shark, silvertip reef shark, whitetip reef shark | 1 Comment »

Impressions of 6 action packed dive days at Clipperton Island – it doesn’t get any more off the beaten track than this expedition. April 25, 2010. Diveguide log

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Our arrival was impressive we just got in to a massive bait ball with thousands of boobies falling like a massive waterfall pounding in to the water. Dolphins every where and down under must have been tunas and sharks. The bait ball moved fast in a 2-3 knots in speed. When we decided to try to take snorkelers in to the inflatables it stopped and it was over.

During our remaining days we never spotted a bait ball like that size again. In 2007 I remeber we had a bait ball as well but smaller, it also stopped before we got out , jumping in to the water all we spotted was a couple of silkie sharks.

The topography that we seen around the atoll is pretty the same Very deep approaching the island slooping sand that turns to a coral reef at the depth at 130- 180 ft with a steep slope (Some areas less then others) up to where there is a plateau that starts at 50-60 ft and slowly comes up to ca 25 ft and then the barriar reef that surrounds the island almost completely that makes it very hard for an landing on the island.

We have not spotted any real pinnacles sea mounts and solo boulders. The reef is quiet uniform in its shape and the reef building corals there are only detected 8 different species maybe 10. The coral reef is very healthy , no real signs of coral bleaching. In bedded in the coral there are traces of long lines all over. We did not see many new once. If that is a good new that long lining is getting less or is it bad that it is to much effort and to little sharks for getting out here?

Critters
There is a difference between the windy wavy side (the north) and the leward side (South) We had probably the most and best diving on the north side. Seems to be more sharks and a bit more of the pelagic animals.

Sharks
Though of what I could  hear a saw my self the hammerhead sharks, the biggest group where seen on the south side of the island. All the hammerheads that we saw were fully grown up big scalloped hammerheads. In three occasions we spotted big groups of silkie sharks. In one moment “whispering in sharks” We had easily 50 silkie sharks cirkiling us, they dissapeared as fast as they appeared! 1 Really exiting and a bit intimidating!. The silkies where not of the size that we see in Revillagigedo Islands. Still think we saw adults and also pregnant females.

Juvenile silvertip shark where everywhere and very curiouse as well sometimes laying in the blue we had up to 20 silvertip around us! We wonder where the grown up once where and the last dive of the trip we got to learn to meet the mother of them all small guys!!  She came in close and really nice and stayed with us for a while. Juvenile galapagos and we have spotted one shark that even our shark expert Mauricio cant identify. We see this species of shark in 3 different locations in two days , but always on the north side. Its  eyes where like a soup shark but the fins where different, the anal fin was huge.We will try to find out.

One diver John saw a big shark that had stripes ..so we think he met a Tiger shark.
A few white tip sharks came by as well. So we had Silkie, silvertip, galapagos, white tip, Tiger and maybe an other species we are not sure of.

Moray eals. We got the finespotted moray eals (starry muray some people calls them) that dominates, yellow edge muray also where among the finespotted murays Their behaviour of both of the species where very bold we actually had our dear repeater guest and filmer Harry got bitten in his hand and we had our other dear repeater guest and Doctor David (David Long fin) stitching harry up under educational instructions of a crew hungry of learning how…

We never saw an octupus and I think this would be a hell to live for an octupus with that many muray eals. This eals are known to get up in the tidal pools and grabbing the red land crabs on the island on land and crwl down back with the crab in the water.

Other species. Lots of leather bass. We saw Wahoos, yellow fin tunas and big guys. This trip we did not se either mantas or whale shark that we did in 2007.

I don’t think the amound of species are that many. I would guess about the same as revillagigedos and what I could see two endemic fish one is the Clipperton Angel fish . beautiful blue angelfish with a neon blue stripe on its fin and a white spot on each side. And a kind of white tail damsell fish I never seen before called Balwins Mayor this two are endemic for the island. There are other species that exist in other areas , but the coloration, and sizes and behaviour are different. Like the mexican Hog fish in Clipperton is very shy when it is even biting us sometimes in Revillagigedo islands and is very curious. Nicole has made a taxonomy and are up to about 60 species for now, we can probably get up to about a 100. Wich is not a lot and a bit typical for the islands on this side of the pacific.

Turtles.
We did see last trip a green turtle , none this trip.

Mammals. There are a lot of Bottlenose dolphins around the islands. It was easy to get in to snorkel with them. No whales what we could see. On our trip in between we came in to a pod of the smaller spotted dolphin.

Dive conditions. The current acted a bit funny in its directions, as being a round island, we got in split currents , meand that at one time the current moves one direction , then a bit further it goes 180 degrees on the other direction. Also seems like the current is more decided by oceanic current more then the tidal one. We never had real hard dive conditions. A bit of surge on the shallow and of course bigger waves on the north side. But the diving is not as demanding as our normal dives in Revillagigedo islands.

And warm!!! shorts and tshirt or a shorty. 28-29 C.

Surface conditions. We had mostly calm seas a swell at 5-6 ft at north side . Most was 8-10 ft first day. Mostly sunny and just a few drops of water. 2007 we had more rain. Normally more wind in the afternoon. Hot! 35 C and very humid.

There are more to tell. But I think our diving was more interessting this trip and also that we where not having as high expectations as last trip where we would see thousands of sharks and find a new under water Eden. But with open eyes and mind take in what we see and we had more action this time, learning from our last trip and this time we even documented more our dives and GPS ed them and add that in to our knowlwdge of Clipperton. We had some really beautiful and exiting dives during this 6 days! This was my 2nd trip to Clipperton. If I want to go again? Absolutely!! I love this trip exploring and have the privilege to go where very few people ever been and  dive it!

On our way to Roca partida.

Dive guide Sten

Shark photo taken by Jeff Bozanic.  All other photos by Scott Davis.

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Posted in Animals, Captains Log, Clipperton Island, Destinations, Galapagos Shark, Hammerhead shark, Moray Eel, Revillagigedos, Roca Partida, Silky Sharks, Tiger Shark, Tuna, bottlenose dolphin, dolphin, shark, silvertip reef shark, turtles | No Comments »

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