Socorro crowded?

[ameneon]

is Socorro starting to get crowded by divers?

I have started researching our next liveaboard trip and Socorro is one of the options.

A couple of things have surprised me. In just a couple of years the amount of boats seem to have more than doubled. Now up to 11 go to the islands at the same time... They call it little Galapagos, but have double the number of liveaboards than Galapagos have. And to make things even worse many of them have ALOT of divers.

I'm used to using and reading about boats with around 16 divers. Or up to 20 sometimes. With 2 dive guides.
But here several of the boats have more than 30 divers?
Bad memories of cattle diving in Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea some years ago comes to mind.

I assume this affects the experience onboard the boats alot, small cabins etc, since the boat seems to be same size as those who have less divers. But my main concern is the diving.

I had the impression this was a couple of small icelands with small and few dive sites?
Has anyone been there last 1-2 years and can comment on how the diving is being done?

I'm wondering about how diving is being done for each boat: group sizes, distance betwen groups, etc.
And also how the boats work together: Number of boats on same site, divers from different boats dive at same time. And if yes to crowded does this affect sea life? Dolphins only interested in first group? Or perhaps even swim away from site? And especially whales are usually scared away very easilly therefore I assume less encounters happen now?

I've also seen quite a few videos of people grabbing and touching the marine life. Is this really accepted by the dive guides?

 

[BDSC]

You are right. Socorro is becoming more crowded. However, there is a way to avoid some of the crowds and to do that just look at what operations travel there and when they go.

It seems that many of the operations don't start going there until mid to late December. The Rocio Del Mar starts going there in the fall season in November. We went in early November on the RDM in 2014 and only saw one other boat the entire trip. A lot of the other liveaboards are still doing the great white cage diving then. We are going back in November of 2019 and again we have the RDM booked. Not sure any other boats will be there at that time except for maybe their sister ship.

The RDM has nice sized cabins, great food, and an even better crew! I have been on that boat three times now. I highly recommend her. The boat holds 20 divers and they split you into three groups. Typically you have groups of 7, 7, and 6 or maybe 8, 6, and 6. Each group departs the ships about 15 minutes apart so the dive site is not overcrowded. You also gear up at separate times so again that aspect of the trip is not crowded either.

I like November because it's warmer water and much less crowded. This is a short video I shot in 2014. It was an amazing trip.

 

[The Chairman]

I had a great time on the Nautilus Belle Amie a few years back. We saw other ships from time to time, but the Captains communicate well and keep us all separated. Here's a couple of videos from my trip...

​

 

[ameneon]

Thanks for the replies and videos.
Hopefully they will regulate the amount and not let even more boats operate here.

Nautilus Belle Amie seems to be the biggest boat with 33 berths or so. From the many good reviews on Scubaboard I am sure the boat and crew is great, and it seems many people didn't mind this many people. But we will never travel on such a large boat.

Rocio Del Mar seems to be ok size and also get even more good reviews. However that seems to be a problem as well as they are sold out the month we are interested in even in 2020. But we will check into that.

I am sure November is great, and less boats is a big bonus. However since we did Galapagos October this year we will try to go peak humpback season instead of whale shark or hammerhead season. And this seems to be the busiest month, at least when it comes to booking years in advance! We wouldn't mind seeing more whale sharks and hammerheads, but not the biggest priority at the moment.

 

[The Chairman]

I'

Rocio Del Mar seems to be ok size and also get even more good reviews.

I've been to the Sea of Cortez twice on the Rocio del Mar and it was an awesome both times.

 

[JackConnick]

I've made this trip 4 times over the years. The last time on Nautilus Belle Ami.

We saw 3-4 boats at each anchorage. It was windy and that limits where the boats can go safely. The issue is that the NBA is sloow and at each spot (with one exception) we were the last to arrive. The boats cooperate in that the dive groups go out in the order that the boats arrive. So we ended up being the last to get in the water all day and it seemed like everything was gone. We didn't see much all week.

I know others that have gone on the same boat and had great trips (before and after ours), so I'm willing to chalk it up to the "luck" of blue water diving, but I would have to say it was a real parking lot at times.

I know that there is a movement to start limiting the boats by the Mexican government, but know how "business" is done down there, I wouldn't expect much.

 

[shrkdive]

I've booked a trip on the Belle Amie this winter and hope it is not as crowded as you indicate. Our last liveaboard was in the Komodo Islands and we only saw 1 other boat on just a single day of our 10 day trip. I thought all the boats left the mainland on different days allowing them to spread out a bit?

 

[ft.lauderdale diver]

I was on the Nautilus Explorer for 10 nights in March 2016. I was concerned about the number of divers on the boat as well (24) but it wasn't bad as we were divided in 3 groups and rotated on each dive which group went in first. No more than 2 groups were in the water at any given time. I personally wouldn;t want more divers on a boat than what was on the explorer. I also didn't see one other boat the entire trip. Also didn't see one whale. Going back on the Explorer in 6 weeks and hoping to not see another boat and lots of whales. Belle Amie schedule worked better for me but opted not to once again because of how many divers it can hold.

 

[Shasta_man]

Nice videos. Great way to really see what it's like. Thanks all! And now I have heard the sound of NetDoc's voice too.

 

[shrkdive]

I just returned from Socorro on the Belle Amie.

Overall it was a great trip and not disappointed at all. We saw mantas on nearly every dive. On two different dives we were in schools of over 50 hammerheads. On several dives the dolphins came and joined us playing right in our faces and bubbles and at Roco Partida we were lucky to have a whale shark swim right by us and stay in the area for several minutes!

While I'd highly recommend this trip and the Belle Amie, I would say that Socorro is getting crowded and there are limited dive sites on the islands.

Our first dive day was on San Benedicto where there are two dive sites. The first dive site call "the Canyon" had very poor visibility so we moved to a site called "the Boiler" where we did 3 more dives that day.

We then spent two days at Roco Partida in 10 foot swells. On the first day there was one other boat besides us. The dive site is quite small so the boat captains coordinated sending out the zodiacs from our boat versus theirs so that we both were not in the water at the same time. Due to the large swells our captain considered going to Socorro early after the first day but over the radio he learned there were already 6 boats at Socorro so we stayed for day 2 at Roco Partida. The other boat left that evening because it was smaller so we were alone on the 2nd day.

We then moved to Socorro for day 4 and 5. When we arrived there were two boats already there so we had to wait until the other two boats completed their first dive of the day. I think we were almost 2 hours late getting into the water that morning. The boats continued to alternate throughout the day as there was only one dive site....Cabo Pearce. That evening the other 2 boats left and therefore we were the only boat left on day 5.

I do hope that the dive boats that frequent the area start to explore and find other dive sites on the island to give more room for the boats to spread out but more importantly give us the opportunity to dive different sites on each island I had seen everything I could at Cabo Pearce by the end of day 2 and would have liked to try another site.

Although a bit crowded and sometimes the dives felt repetitive on day 2 this is a bucket list trip that I'd highly recommend. For such wild place all of our expectations were met.