Undersea Hunter Group
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Sunny Days & Surprising Seasons…
It’s May and that means the rainy season has technically begun but in Cocos the sun was shining. Underwater we encountered a few more pleasant surprises as well.
As we explored the deep waters (300m/1000ft) we encountered 1°C higher temperatures. Last year we believe this caused behavioral changes in the deep ocean creatures, although this year the changes are subtler.
Mobula ray glided in and out of the darkness as silky sharks and yellowfin tuna were active above the wall. The tuna were incredibly graceful, circling and racing in the blue waters like the birds in the skies. Scorpionfish of vivid red color posed against the basalt rock giving allowing us to witness the stark contrast.
Another surprise of the week came in the form of two rarely seen species; a torpedo ray, which avoids detection by burying itself in the sand and a group of long and skinny fish whose shinny scales reflects light like a mirror.
Around the Everest Seamount (100m/300ft) we had an invasion of yellowfin tuna that soared over the rock at a constant pace. When they eventually dispersed, shy hammerhead sharks approached the pinnacle to be cleaned from parasites by angelfishes and other cleaners.
We also had a few very curious groupers of medium and large size that came right next to the sub’s dome. They also didn’t waste time claiming the sub as high priced territory. To enforce their territory the larger grouper would almost dance in front of the DeepSee to dissuade potential competitors.
As we made our way around the rock we encountered a large school of hammerheads gliding almost motionless in the current. After an incredible dive we headed back to the mothership, but not before finding ourselves surrounded by a tornado of bigeye jacks, what an incredible feeling.
The pilots
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