Oceanic Islands of the Mex. Pacific, Dive Report

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

This thread has the purpose of putting together the latest information on diving in the amazing Oceanic islands of the Mexican Pacific. Most of them can only be reached on longer multiday liveaboard expeditions.

The list includes

Guadalupe and its impresive great whites
The San Benitos with their beautifull kelp forest
Rocas Alijos, where the temperate and tropical provinces meet
The Revillagigedos (San Benedicto, Soccorro, Roca Partida and Clarion)
The Clipperton Atoll

and ocassionally others like the three Marias and many more inside the Gulf of Califonia AKA Sea of Cortez which are no so oceanic but are also amazing to dive .

Please comment on anything intersting about the diving in them.


Just returned from the first trips of 2009 in the Revillagigedos, after 15 years of first visiting the area.
News, reports and conditions in the following posts.

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

This first month of 2009 in the Revillagigedos (AKA Socorro) began with warmer water than normal around the New Year (and also warmer weather). Water temperatures ranged around 78 F with no thermoclines in sight. The manta activity and behavior was very good in places like the boiler and the Canyon in San Benedicto as well as Socorro. Not too many sharks (except for whale sharks and white tip reef ) showed themselves in the archipelago. The humpbacks arrived (this is the largest population in Mexico). Towards the middle of the month water began cooling down and some thermoclines appeared above 130 ft, this probably caused many more sharks to be seen in San Benedicto , Roca Partida and Socorro. The list of sharks included Hammerheads, Silkies, Galapagos and Silver tips. A 35 foot female whale shark was observed in the western side of the boiler and she hung around at 100 ft for at least 6 minutes and a juvenile 15 footer was seen at the surface around Roca Partida for a very long period (around 30 minutes). The Manta action and special behavior in Roca Partida was very good towards the end of the month too. Dolphins showed up fairly often in Roca Partida, San Benedicto and Socorro.
In a few occasions there was non stop rain with windy conditions (unusual for this time of the year ) and also some heavy swells that came from the north for short periods. Socorro has a very, very green look at this time.

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Here are some images of the January 2009 Trips in the Revillagigedos (Socorro, San Benedicto and Roca Partida).

Revillagigedo 2009 - a set on Flickr

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

I have tried to visit the beautiful San Benito islands every year for some time now.

The group of three small volcanic islands is located south east of isla Guadalupe and to the west of the huge isla de Cedros (Baja California Sur). They have an amazing and very pristine kelp forest around them and are similar to the underwater environment you saw in isla San Clemente, California years ago. To me the underwater colorful environment and vistas, although very different, rivals any Caribbean reef. This year, due to their biological value and conditions, they will very possibly be declared a protected area both above and under water.

Towards the end of 2008 the conditions were very good. The water temperature was pretty high for the season (around 69-71 F and 66-67 at depth). The gigant and palm kelp was in very good shape and the visibility was beyond 100 feet except for the inside of one of the coves where the warmer water had caused some of the sea grasses and other sea plants to start decaying. Regarding big animals , the three species of pinnipeds were present in abundance (Elephant seals, Guadalupe fur seals and the California sea lions) and also bottle nose dolphin. Really long and incredible encounters with harbor seals were the norm this time. The Garibaldi, Sheep head, Sea hares, Horn shark, Torpedo rays and extensive list of Nudibranchs were present too.

Here are some images and video

Islas San Benito 2008 - a set on Flickr

YouTube - IslasSan Benito Baja California Sur 2008, Harbor Seal / Die Zauber Floete ,Mozart

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Hello remote island diving fans,


On this post I was going to write a brief report of the isla Guadalupe season that ended just prior to the December 2008 holidays.


I will leave it for later because there is a piece of news that is very important for anyone diving the Revillagigedo islands the rest of this season (ending in April- May).

The air strip at Socorro island (the only operational one in the archipelago) was kind of in bad shape as of last year. There had been many years of service from it without major maintenance .

Full repairs are taking place right now and as of two weeks ago it is totally out of service. This means that the only way of doing any kind of medical evacuation in case of emergency is by boat. The repairs will go on until the summer 2009.

So please, please if you dive this beautiful and very remote area during the rest of this season be very conservative and really pay attention to the depths, briefings and dive plans. This applies not only to DCS but also to the remote case in which a diver gets lost (there is no possibility of organizing air searches either) or even non related medical issues or accidents. There is still a physician at the Navy base of course.

For the 2009-2010 season begining in Nov the strip should be fully operational again..


Stay tuned for more reports