Undersea Hunter Group
Registered
On this very special PRETOMA Shark and Turtle Tagging Trip, we welcomed on board divers from many different countries, all of them gathered by Randall Arauz and Todd Steiner, the leaders of the organization (click here to see previous trips and learn more about PRETOMA). As we made the journey to the island, all the tools needed for the expeditions were being prepared: tags, transmitters, and all sorts of items needed to properly track and record data.
On our very first day diving Manuelita the group spotted our firsts tiger sharks. We have observed a steady increase in tiger shark sighting in recent months and we believe this increase may explain why we are seeing a decrease in the number of turtles.
The second day we had a wonderful dive at Dirty Rock. Hammerheads were all over the place. Punta Maria was also as its best! Galapagos, blacktips and hammerheads were sharing the same cleaning station, making for an excellent view.
The third day marked our opportunity to explore the east side of the Island, and at Alcyone we saw a river of hammerheads passing through the cleaning station. Submerged Rock was equally brilliant, with big schools of snapper, black jacks and whitetips congregating around the swim through.
At night, like the previous day, a huge school of whitetips were looking for dinner at Manuelita Coral Garden. Day four was time for both Dos Amigos; we had very good dives to the bigger of the two brothers, where a group of eagle rays were feeding extremely close to the divers.
Day 5 we went back to the sites with the most action; Dirty Rock and Punta Maria, where we encountered great shark action. Over at Alcyone, one of the most popular sites, we lucked when a massive school of hammerheads swam in front of us while we were holding onto a rock in front of one of the cleaning station.
The last day we decided to head back to Alcyone and Dirty rock, as these were the divers favorites. The diving had been excellent, but the scientists hadn't been as lucky as they had hoped. While they were successful in recovering stats on previously tagged animals, on this trip they were only able to place one new tag on a turtle.
Our trip came to a close, but not before we had one last big animal encounter! On our crossing back to the mainland, we spotted a small pod of humpback whales. An exciting end to an unforgettable trip.
Visit our website to see the Guestbook Comments from this trip:Guestbook Cocos Island Argo 11April 21April2013
