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

On approaching Isla San Benedicto we had a great performance off the bow from our resident bottle-nose dolphins and the sea smoothed out nicely upon arriving at our sheltered anchorage and first dive site, ‘the Canyon’. Conditions at the Canyon had improved since our last trip here, with visibility around 60 ft (18m) on dive 1 and a mild current. I’m hoping that it will get back up to 100 feet of blue water within the next couple of days. The hammerhead shark cleaning stations that make this divesite so good were, unfortunately, clean of hammerheads, but were alive and quite beautiful with a lot of colorful fish. Schools of Jacks and tuna were in the area as well as a lone silver-tip shark, who was our only ‘big’ animal spotted here today. Dive two was more of the same but with reduced visibility and a moderate current flowing through the site. So, a relatively quiet start to this one, but with Roca Partida coming up tomorrow and the next day I am anticipating a much more exciting read for you on my next log. Divemaster Jessie has promised us to do her shark dance in the morning which she assures us definitely might work

Captain Gordon Kipp

Surface conditions: Winds around 10-15 kts on location with up to 25 kts on the crossing, seas 1-2 ft on location with swell 5-8 ft on the crossing, today mostly cloudy with some sunny periods, air temps a little cool at 72F (22C)

Diving conditions: Visibility 20-60ft (6-18m), current mild to moderate, water temp 75F (24C)

As the sun sets today in a glorious riot of colour and the ship rocks gently in the swells, I take a deep breath and look back over the last year. You see, today is my 21st birthday. Achieved my Bridge Watchkeepers Certificate, and took all the relevant safety courses (Marine Emergency Duties, First Aid, etc.). I lived in another city for several months for the first time. And to top it off, I began working on the Nautilus Explorer. Today began much like any other day. Up early enough to see the sunrise, pink and gold fading into a brilliant blue. We were in transit to the Soccoro Islands, so I did a quick walk around to check nothing had come loose with the movement of the boat during the night. We began with a dive briefing, both on safety and on today’s site, the Canyon. This was followed by finishing tank and station set up, which is always a wonderful opportunity to connect with the guests.

We arrived at San Benedicto around 1330-1400, and promptly began discharging guests into the water. The report upon surfacing was great visiblilty, lots of fish, but no mantas. When the guests had cleared the deck, Sandy (the first mate), and I went for a dive. As promised there were lots of fish. Moorish Idols, Jacks and lots of Moray eels. A Mexican Hogfish decided he really liked how my hair looked- he was determined to get a bite. Eventually he went away without mishap. We also saw a silvertip shark!
As this is my first birthday away from home, I anticipated a small amount of homesickness – however the day is always so busy and exciting and so different from home, there really is nothing to remind me that I’m not there. Now time to go eat my birthday cake!

Tess Szostakiwskyj
Deckhand on the Nautilus Explorer April – June 2010

The second day of diving in the Socorro Island, today we are in Roca Partida, this morning we have a big school of dolphins close to the island,and I decide go for one of my last dive of the season, sad because is the last trip of the season, but exacting, because that mean Guadalupe island with the White Great Shark is coming…anyway…the visibility was great!!! no, even after five minutes that I was there a WHALE SHARK show up!!!!! That was really great!!!!!!!!he is being there since the first dive of the morning, I”m glad that I went today because I was thinking go tomorrow,so I say, don’t wait for tomorrow if you can do it today!!!!!!!

The whale shark stay the whole dive, going back and forth, SUPER HERMOSO…. Is so nice to be in his world….can wait for my next dive adventure!!!!!!!

Hostess
Silvia:)

She never came back any more but we stayed at Punta Tosca at Socorro  for 2 very curious Chevron Female Giant mantas staying with hall of us. It was just an overdose of manta encounters. I looked at my maxdepth in this manta dive 46 ft no more! No reason to go deep when the animals comes to you. We stayed at the same place the whole dive.

It was a good diveday the whole day spiced with hammerheads, silvertips and silky sharks as well.

Something totally different On board on the Nautilus we been having a free passanger since Cabo San Lucas. She is a little brown headed cow bird.Size of a finch That have decided to adopt the Nautilus. he is jumping around on the dive deck, drinking water from the camera water dip tanks and chasing the small crabs that runs on deck and eats them. he is as unafraid now that she even have come up sitting on our hands. He likes to sleep under the rescue boat at night. See if he jumps of in Cabo, or have been spoiled of the service on our vessel. Marco the captain has baptised him Duncan wich in celtic means brown head…

Surface conditions: A bit windy , compared our totally calm days , mostly sunny and 27 C Under water, very mild current , very little surge, 70-90 ft 23-24 C ca 74-75 F

Dive guide  Sten

After the 3td dive when we came back from the dive we spotted false orcas, relative to Pilot whales. So we went in and they came curiously in to us and sonared us and checked us up several times. Big group of them out there maybe a hundred. We had around a 25-30 with us. Suddenly being in the water the zodiak was with us more then 30 very curiouse silky sharks came quickly swimming up to us and stroke just beside our fins. I suddenly noticed that all my guests had got out of the water and sat in the inflateble. Funny I thought they came here to Revillagigedo to see sharks not sitting on the boat… But honestly the silkies where a bit frisky.. One silver tip came up with them as well. Nice to see that many sharks. And great to see the false orcas again, they make a lot of sounds in the water it is that load that you can hear them sitting in the skiff.

An other interessting thing was to see that a bottle nose dolphin was accompanying the pod of the false orcas. And talking about the bottlenose dolphin today we witnessed a single bottle nose dolphin chasing bigeyed jacks , picking one out and sonar it with load sonar making the poor big eyed jack puke up the bait fish, the dolphin takes the fish and let the jack alone. I think it is quiet fantastic.
Good day!

Dive guide

Sten

Surface conditions: Flat sunny  no wind, 27 C

Underwater conditions: Some current, mostly 110 ft Viz temp 75 F 24

Ola manta!!

Estamos em “Roca Partida”, apos 1 serie de 4 mergulhos, com um fundo a 3.500 mts… “Silkies”, atuns gigantes, wahoo’s e … muita alegria, com um servico de bordo fantastico, e uma tripulacao 5 estrelas!! Venham ver, pois vale bem a pena!
Do vosso amigo, que vos estima, e se assina: Quincas.  

Ola pessoal da mergulhacao e nao so….

Depois de uma viagem de 24 horas de navegacao fizemos a nossa estreia de mergulhos em San Benedicto no spot The Boiler.
Estavam a nossa espera jamantas gigantes e tubarao baleia. Como inicio nao poderia ser melhor.
Com o mar calmissimo fizemos a travessia para Roca Partida onde depois de 4 grandes mergulhos nos encontramos para passar a noite e repetirmos a dose amanha. A comida e o servico sao de excepcao, bem como a tripulacao que alem de ser 5 estrelas tem uma disponibilidade acima de tudo o que seria expectavel. O ambiente nao podia ser melhor e o grupo esta animadissimo.

Vamos agora atacar umas espetadas deliciosas feitas no barbecue de bordo pelo nosso excelente cozinheiro, acompanhadas por um tinto chileno de alto gabarito.

Carlos Ramos

Nao podia ser melhor. Mar calmo, jamantas, tubaroes, jacks, atuns, etc… Muito bom o servico de bordo. Excelente comida, muita atencao de toda a tripulacao, com um cuidado optimo antes e depois do mergulho. Sempre agua e sumos junta da plataforma de mergulho, nao esquecendo a toalhas lavadas para o que o que for necessario. Nos intervalos entre o almoco e o jantar aparece um a tabua de queijos de fazer inveja. Aconselho este destino.

Joao Egreja

Sorriso de orelha a orelha….depois de mais um mergulho em Roca Partida fomos abordados por um cardume de dezenas Falsas Orcas onde apenas alguns tiveram a sorte de saltar para a agua com mascara e barbatanas…mas saimos rapidamente!!! quando demos por nos estamos a ser observados por perto trinta tubaroes silky e silver tip…foi o momento alto.

Rui Martins & Penetra & Carlos Carvalho

Ola PEOPLLE!!!

Daqui Penetra e Rui emitidindo directamente de Roca Partida, depois de 8 excelentes mergulhos vamos levantar ancora e partir para Socorro para mais mantas, tubaroes de todas as especies e feitios, atum gigantes e jacks para todos os gostos.

Esperam nos mais umas valentes milhas com o excelente servico a bordo do Nautilus Explorer, julgamos que viriamos perder uns kilitos, mas afinal sairemos daqui mais anafaditos e provavelmente pagaremos excesso de bagagem, isto se la chegarmos, pois ja nos comentaram que o vulcao esta a fazer das suas.

Amanha chegaremos finalmente a Socorro, motivo principal desta viagem. Grupo excelente e tripulacao 5 estrelas, hoje temos Hula Hula Party, para nos entreter na viagem. Abraco ao Pai ZE e restante familia Martins, e claro para a minha Weasel e a para a Ullecas

Ate amanha!!!

Oi malta, aqui estou eu, de novo, para mais uma mensagem telegrafica. Pois e, mais uma serie de mergulhos em Roca Partida, num azul quase sem fim, com uma visibilidade de mais de 50 mts, atuns, Black Jack’s e silkies de grande porte, e uns bons martelos, embora ao longe. O que nao falha e a comida, que e sempre fantastica e sempre diferente… vou jantar, ate depois!

Quincas

I’ve seen her several times before and she has a funny behaviour. She comes in close to you and just when you think she almost will hit you she makes a loop and lays with her beautiful anchor patterned belly letting the light catch it and very photogenic so to say. She followed us for long time today over and over. We stopped filming early today cause the light was a bit poor cause of clouds so we went for a fun dive at the canyon. At a moment we saw just a couple of silver tip sharks and then for a sudden a wall of hammerheads. We went hiding by the rocks , but they never came back.

Surface conditions: Windy and choppy and cloudy. temp 25 C

Underwater conditions: 25 C , 75 F Good viz ca 70-100ft. Current , not much of surge.

Dive guide Sten

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

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.

My goal today was to get my last two benthic (coral/algae) surveys and the last three Rainbow chub (a fish) we needed for DNA work.  They are tough to get!!!  Scott took the spear first.  The site was beautiful – so many fish, and SO SO much coral.  I couldn’t wait to see the results of the data to see if there really was as much coral as it seemed.  The reefs here appear very healthy.  Scott hung out looking for the rainbow chub while I payed out my 50 meter tape.  These transects are exhausting!!  Every 10 centimeters, I put my finger on the tape and take it to the bottom, and record what is right under my finger.  I have to do that about 500 times for just ONE transect!!  You see why two of them per site is already a lot.  For the fish transects I swim 50 meters, and count fish all the way to the surface (I am at about 45 feet), and out to 2.5 meters on each side of me.  So the box‚ I count in is about 15 meters high, 5 meters wide and 50 meters wide, a big area!  I have to count ALL the fish I see.  I swim once to count the fish swimming above and around me, and I swim back a second time to count all the little fish that are in and on the coral bottom.  I generally counted around 500 fish on each dive!!

While I was working, I would occasionally catch a glimpse of Scott  still hanging out waiting for the Rainbow chub!  Where are they?  I could tell he must be getting frustrated.  A hunter with no prey!!  Suddenly he and I saw the Rainbow chub at the same time.  I was working so I turned back to my transect feeling good that he finally had something to do!  When I finished my transect I looked up to see that he had one fish.  Yeah!! We only need 2 more!  I also saw some good sized silver tip sharks at that time (less problem with the Morays since Scott was hunting higher up in the water column).  Suddenly, more chub.  Scott drew the rubber on his spear taught, aimed – fire!  GOT IT!  But wait, that fish wiggled so hard it got off the spear.  It was bleeding a lot, and headed straight down for the bottom.  Like a flash of lightening, the slowly circling sharks bolted into action.  One of them shot so fast to the bottom after that fish I could hardly tell what it was.  I have NEVER seen a shark swim that fast.  Then another, then a third shark.  Then a Trevally Jack shot out of the blue. Now I know what they mean by a feeding frenzy.  They truly changed to predatory bullets.  That poor fish never had a chance.  It would be torn to pieces by frenzied predators.

Meanwhile, back on the boat  plenty of excitement.  Harry got bit really badly by a Moray eel.  Doctor Dave got out his doctors kit and went to work.  6 stiches total! Captain Gordon named the reef Harry’s Moray in honor of his injury.

Also, we were discovering that people had seen some decent sized sharks – some big ones really.  And not only were they big, but curious too – not something you want from a big shark.  One group of divers saw a school of about 10 BIG hammerhead sharks down at about 120 feet.  Others said they had seen some big silvertips, not the smaller pups‚ we had been seeing.  I checked in on Harry, noted the shark stories and jumped on the Zodiac.

So we still need two more rainbow chub.  We have ONE MORE dive to finish.  I managed to get all my transects done so decided to take my last dive as a fun exploratory dive where I didn’t have to work the whole time.  I even took my camera! I told Scott: no big deal if we don’t get any more chub.  We had three (our goal was 5).  He looked at me funny and said I plan to get it all done, no almost for me.  He grabbed a spear and headed for the boat.  My competitive nature took over, and I grabbed the other spear just in case.  The problem was, and I didn’t really think through this, we only had one bag to put the fish into, and Scott took it.

I decided to spend a bunch of time shallow on this dive to see if I could find some blennies and other fish I haven’t seen much of.  I swam to about 20 feet of water and saw a really big thing stick up out of the reef towards the surface.  As I swam closer, I saw an anchor!!! A REALLY old anchor, left there by a ship many many years ago. It was a giant iron anchor  - the type the Spanish galleons used to use.  It was super cool  and I swam around it and took some pictures.  (*  note from Captain Mike  - Clipperton Island is named after the English pirate, John Clipperton, who based his ship here for attacks on “Manila galleons” that had left Aculpulco and tracked south to pick up the tradewinds for their voyage across the pacific ocean.   Interestingly, the lagoon was still open in those days and he was able to anchor inside.   The lagoon is entirely surrounded by the atoll now.   We can only speculate that Clipperton must have attacked a spanish galleon and sailed it back to the atoll to strip it of riches *).

As I neared the drop-off, I saw a shape.  I continued and looked more closely.  There it was again.  It was pretty big.  Definitely swimming.  Now it’s approaching me. Wow!!  It’s pretty big!  It’s a silver tip shark!  Finally one that is the size that Clipperton used to be famous for its big sharks.   I was so excited to see such a beautiful animal. It was so beautiful.  To see a large shark move through the water is to see power, grace, and beauty.  It’s mesmerizing really.  I watched for what seemed like a long time.  I came out of my trance to realize this animal can also be dangerous, and Scott was somewhere nearby spearfishing  to say nothing of my own goal to get one elusive hard-to-get Rainbow chub.  If you read about silver tip sharks in the book it says “can be dangerous in the vicinity of spearfishing”.  I’m thinking of the poor Doctor Dave – he already had to deal with the imbedded nasty fish hook on the wayward fisherman, then Harry‚s moray bite – he doesn’t need a shark incident!

Nicole

Today I sat out the first dive, as I wanted more time to do a final deeper dive to photograph the rhodolith bed. I also wanted a few more Clipperton angels for the aquarium, so Harry offered to collect them for me. About 20 minutes later, as I was preparing the rebreather, one of the Zodiacs came screaming up to the back of the mother ship. “Help! I need a doctor! Get Elaine!” Harry then rolled out of the Zodiac and onto the ship’s deck. He was clutching one hand in the other, with blood dripping from between his fingers.

I immediately sprinted for more people to help, and returned to Harry. “What happened?”

I was just beginning to work at collecting fish when this gigantic eel came up and bit me!

I briefly examined the wound, and then went to secure his dive gear as better trained people took over assisting Harry. His hand was wounded in two places, each bite requiring three stitches too close it. David did the repairs, after the site had been numbed with Lidocaine, a locally applied anesthetic.

I went back to my original dive plan, and was dropped off at the GPS location where the ship had been anchored the day I originally found the rhodoliths. I dropped down on the oyster bed in 150 feet of water, and swam out to 200 feet. I did not find the rhodoliths. I did, however, immediately find two white tip sharks, which stayed to keep me company the entire dive. Nothing like having a few curious sharks circling you for two hours after having a team member bitten by an eel to improve your sense of peacefulness and well-being!

Despite my uneasiness, I continued the dive and collected a couple of different species of oysters I had not previously collected. I also took photographs and collected cone shells, a few echinoderms, and some coral rubble samples covered with live coralline algae that may be proto-rhodoliths. During my decompression, which I did in mid-water hanging from a lift bag held by a string, I was circled by the same two sharks. They generally kept their distance from me, but every few minutes one or the other would suddenly charge up to within 10-20 feet of me, before suddenly turning tail and swimming away again. Not much I could do about it though, as I still had to complete almost two hours of decompression before it would be safe for me to return to the surface.

After an hour or so a pod of 15 dolphins showed up. I thought that they would scare the sharks away, but no such luck. The dolphins swam by me once, and then swam off again. Too bad, I much preferred their company!

Finally completed my decompression and gladly returned to the surface.

I sat out the third dive to allow some of the nitrogen and nitrogen dissolved in my body to off-gas. Then I suited up for the final dive. I decided not to press my luck, and opted not to collect fish. Instead, I took my camera and shot more photographs. I found a very large gill net, draped across the reef. The shallowest parts were 40 feet deep. The net itself spread from about 70 feet down to 190 feet deep on the reef, and extended for hundreds of feet along the reef. It had been there so long that the corals were growing over and engulfing the net.

The environmental problem with abandoned nets like this one is that they do not stop catching fish for a very long time. Even now, this net is spread out and open. Fish still get caught in it, and die. Then birds come down to eat the struggling fish, and they themselves get caught and drown. Marine mammals like dolphins are ensnared and die. So are sea turtles. In California, a single abandoned drift net had the carcasses of 43 sea lions! These nets are called ghost nets, as even though they are lost to the fishermen who deploy them, they continue their deadly function of trapping and killing marine life.

People who enjoy eating seafood may not recognize just what the overhead is for the fish they consume. It has been estimated that for some types of seafood the byproduct catch (the unwanted fish caught accidentally and disposed of) is ten times what the actual catch is that is brought to market. This is one of the reasons I do not eat seafood.

Fishing procedures are also getting more and more efficient. A century ago, for example, a tuna fisherman would have to scour the oceans, looking for signs of tuna. They would watch the weather, the seasons, the currents, the local water temperature, and try to predict where they could find the fish. They guessed where to go, based on very limited local data. They caught fish, but missed more than they found.

Now tuna fleets utilize regional and global temperature and current models built by scientists and published on the Internet by universities and marine laboratories to find the schools of fish. They use helicopters to spot the clouds of birds that trail the schools of baitfish upon which the tuna feed. This greatly increases their range and efficacy in locating tuna schools. In fact, we saw a tuna helicopter cruise by Clipperton several times yesterday afternoon. They use real time satellite data published by NASA to determine exact sea surface temperatures, another clue in where to look for tuna. The net result? The tuna fleets are getter better and better at finding and decimating the existing tuna resources. The quantity of fish being landed is still increasing. Fishermen cite this data to show that the fishery is still healthy.

However, I (and many other scientists who study fish populations) do not believe this to be true. The fishery cannot sustain the current fishing activity level. We expect a catastrophic decline that will eventually cause the complete failure of the fishery, as what happened with sardines and anchovy off the California coast in the 1950s. If we are to prevent this problem, the time to act is now, before it is too late.

Finally, it was time to surface. We all returned to the Explorer, and packed out dive gear. They loaded the skiffs, and with the sunset behind us we left Clipperton. We still have work to do there, but unfortunately no more time. That is generally the case with science. Evan as we work to answer questions, we find ourselves asking new ones raised by the data we have collected. As the saying goes, “There are no such things as completed projects, only deadlines!” We had reached our deadline. It was time to leave.

Jeff

Having been to other remote atolls, Clipperton Island far exceeded my expectations in regards to coral abundance, the amount of reef fish, and overall beauty of the reef. What a pleasure it was to simply slip on a t-shirt and shorts, strap on a tank and hop in the bath like water. Going to a place as remote and relatively untouched as Clipperton would have felt more expedition like had it not been for the uber luxury standards of the Nautilus. Simply stated, an amazing trip with an amazing crew, and a great mix of passengers.
Scott

Clipperton Atoll….What an AMAZING adventure!!!!!!  From the schools of hammerhead sharks, to the tuna, silvertips, eels by the thousands….what an AWESOME part of the planet!!!! Doc Dave was able to perform surgery and save the day on two occasions as well as enjoy pelagic diving with fifty….read that again…FIFTY silky sharks that were a bit interested in altering his persuasion?! Thanks Sten!!!!!! The Nautilus Explorer and it’s crew have been OUTSTANDING….. food has been beyond belief and the service makes you want to come back aboard in the future for more of the same!  You can’t see things in the underwater world if you’re topside. The Nautilus Explorer and the crew make sure that the dives are not limited necessarily by the clock.  Spectacular diving can’t be limited based on a pre-determined dive time. Freedom to dive you own profile is another hallmark of Nautilus Explorer diving and this sets apart the Nautilus Explorer from most every other liveabaord. Now on to Roca Partida and more GREAT DIVING (hopefully no need for any more surgery)!!!!!  David

Different.  Dive where you will, but you have not seen this.  Moray eels at night?  No. Free swimming throughout the day.  One? Two? Five? Twenty-five? Fifty?  They keep coming! Stay back!  They move with purpose!  Juvenile Silver tip sharks (2-3′) on most dives for the last six days, and momma today! Some silkies today(not like two days ago when the paraded in from the blue).  Saw a 10′ tiger shark the third day (only picture is in my memory)identified by the flick of a large striped tail as it moved into them blue. The Clipperton Angels, Leather Bass, Surgeons, etc…..  all numerous  on every dive, fearless, and easily photographed. The Nautilus Explorer crew is outstanding!  On the boat, in the water, service is the objective.  Dives were exploratory, but well managed and timed with everyone allowed to dive to their own capacity and taste.  Onboard, no want goes un satisfied.  Now north to Roca Partida, happy there is more diving ahead!!  John B.

After over a week of diving all around Clipperton, I’ve come to the conclusion that the windward side of the atoll is definitely better for diving.  We’ve had more sharks, more eels, and generally more varieties of fish on the windward side than the lee. Couple that with surprisingly less surge and current, and you get some really fantastic dives.  Today, on our post-lunch dive, I decided when I jumped in that I would do a quick, deep dive towards the bottom portion of the reef, where the colorful coral peters out to white rubble.  There’s been a persistent thermocline down in the 170 foot range all around the island, and I wanted to see some of the life that preferred colder waters.  As I came back up to around 130 feet, I fell in behind a group of other divers from the boat, who were joined by a solitary big eye jack that decided he wanted to be part of the fun.  As the rest of the group bubbled across the reef, this lone jack dutifully tagged along behind the group all the way up until they made their safety stops in the shallows and climbed back into the zodiac.  If he could have, I’m he would’ve probably climbed into the boat with them and ridden back to the Nautilus.  The behavior of the wildlife out here at Clipperton is completely different almost anything I’ve ever seen before – from this lone jack to the bizarrely aggressive eels, it’s been a fascinating week of true expedition exploration.
Cameron E.

We started of on the south side of the island and dived direct under the boat. We whispered in sharks and a bunch of juvenile silver tip just 2 feet long comes curiously in to us. As well we got leather bass and bllue fin  travelly. As much as 50 each just swarms around us. And the starry moray eels are just crazy down here , they go after you and sticking the fin out at them some takes a bite at your fins!!
It was a great start of our diving here! On our last dive of the day we got in 6 hammerhead sharks in good full size 7-10 ft in lenght just cruising by the coral wall at 120 ft, just below a thermaclime that occured with colder and greeen water at 100 ft. Nice to see they are here.  Diveguide Sten.

Surface conditions : A bit windy 8-10 ft swell on the windy side, calm on leward side. Sunny and hot! 35 C

Underwater: none to medium current, that constantly changes directions. Viz 50 ft to easy 100ft 28 c at therma clime it goes down to 25 C.

Today we moved up and explored more of the north part of the atoll. Last year it was in this area we spotted giant mantas. The topography is a bit typical what we have seen around Clipperton so far. Coral reef with the edge att 50- 60 ft that droppes steep down to sanda t ca 12- 130 ft and continuis to slope down to many places more then a 1000 ft . The north side is a bit less drop though. We had a bit of current , but not so bad that we could not swim against it. We dropped under the boat and some of us just stayed by a cleaning station with a lot of barberfish. Lots of leather bass and blue fin Travelly and first one moray eal then an other and an other and then it can look like a snake nest up to 20 m0ray eels at one spot.  Very very curiouse. during the dives today it seems like the animals have not much of fear and are very bold compared too other places I have dived. I  call in predetors by making sound and here we swam out a bit called and at a moment I had 15-20 juvenile silvertip sharks comiong rushing up to us from the deep!!  They are cute 1- 2 ft big no more. Did the same with a silky shark it rushed straigt up and had to wave at it to back off! But where are the adult animals? The hammerheads we saw yesterday where big, but the silvertip and the silkie where just small guys. We have seen so far seen 4 or 5 species of shark so far. Silky , silver, hammer, white tip, and maybe galapagos but we are not sure yet.

In one of our dives up in the north we could hear dolphins under water the whole dive and finally we saw them . But even better was snorkelling with them, the pod was huge. But in water we saw them 30 and up over 50 at the time. More crazy you where behaving crazier they did , swimming and spinning and sounding us. A great experience. And there are many of them around the atoll. Last we did this day was a night dive under the Nautilus Explorer. Lobsters, shrimps and brittlestars came out, Some fish where in a sleeping mode, but it was not so much of change of behaviour. It was a nice long day and time to get some sleep for next day.

Guest comments……

Welcome to Clipperton Atoll!!! After crossing from Socorro, we arrived to a beautiful atoll. We were greeted by dolphins in our wake.  A first was noticed upon our arrival when we saw a ‘bait ball’ being attacked by booby birds and dolphins. Diving along ‘Turtle Wall’ today produced lots of free-swimming morays, several silver-tip sharks, the endemic Clipperton angelfish, and a school of hammerheads. No turtles, but there’s always tomorrow! What a unique opportunity to dive a remote atoll aboard the best liveaboard in the pacific! Stay tuned for more updates! Doc Dave

Clipperton es una isla Mexicana! Vienen los chilangos! Saludos a Mama y mi abuela desde la pared de los Tortugas. que viva México…. y que corra bala!!!!!  Marcos

Comme le drapeau francais flotte fierement sur l’ile de Clipperton!  Pierre

It was nice to get into the water, and it’s definitely a unique spot, like a doughnut in the middle of the ocean. There’s a lot of fish down there!  Steve

A few photos from our 2007 Clipperton adventure taken by Chris Grossman and others.