Playa Del Carmen Daily Dive Report! Geofish

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

November 24, 2010

Tortugas and Sabalos

Today was a bit better weather than yesterday. The sun was out and the wind was down to about 12knots/13mph. Turned out to be an even better day than I expected

Tortugas was great today. The current was pretty strong, but it usually is in Tortugas. We ended up seeing around 5 or 6 turtles, all Hawksbills and a school of four big Rainbow Parrotfish. Now i can't decide which sighting was the highlight, but both were amazing. The first was when we were coming up along the sloping wall to about 70ft, a medium sized Spotted Eagle Ray swam right in front of us and just stopped. I never can get over how beautiful they are when I see them. Then the second sighting in the running is when a 2 meter/6.5ft Bull Shark showed up. It came within 25 feet of us and swam away pretty fast, pretty sure it was looking for some Turtle for breakfast. Maybe you can vote on what you would rather see, a Spotted Eagle Ray or a Bull Shark. Definitely a great dive.

Sabalos was very nice today as well. No turtles but tons of fish, lobster, and I can confidently say the highlight of the dive was two Spotted Eagle Rays swimming together on top of the reef. Really nice sighting. So in total we saw 3 Spotted Eagle Rays, a Bull Shark, about 5 or 6 turtles, and more fish than we can even think about counting.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

November 26, 2010

Punta Venado and Barracuda

Today the weather was great. The winds were down to 7knots/8mph and the waves were down to less than 1meter. The water wasn't like glass, but it was 100% better than it has been the last week and a half.

Punta Venado was beautiful as usual. We dropped down to 70ft/21m and the visibility was very nice at about 80ft/24m. We ended up seeing 4 turtles and the highlight of the dive was, once again, a Spotted Eagle Ray. It is getting into the season for seeing Eagle Rays and we have now seen them on 2 out of the last 3 morning trips. Very nice dive.

Barracuda was nice as always. The visibility was around 75ft/22m and the current was moderate. We ended up seeing 1 Hawksbill Turtle and I am pretty sure at least 10 Eels in total. As I said in a past report, we had not been seeing many Eels and now it seems like every 10ft we drift we are seeing one, and the Green Moray's that we are seeing are HUGE!! The diving is getting back to great after being just okay for about a week. The turtles, Eagle Rays, and Eels are back and they are beautiful.

Tomorrow: November 27th, 2010

Either Punta Venado and Barracuda again or Moche Deep and Cueva Pargo. Let you know where tomorrow. Happy Diving. Also we are going to do a shop Shark dive tomorrow in the afternoon, so I will keep you guys posted on where we are with the Sharks.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

November 29, 2010

Shark Point and Jardines

Today the weather is great. A little windy with gusts coming for the ESE at 13knots/15mph. The water is a little choppy, but nothing too crazy. The Temperature at the time of our dive was 27C/80F.

Shark Point was amazing today. This was our first Shark dive since the fishing incident and it was awesome! Before we even touched down at 90ft we spotted 2 Bull's. We ended up seeing 6 in total and two of them were VERY pregnant females. They were never aggressive, but at one point two of them were within touching distance. They followed us from our max depth of 100ft to about 70 feet where we started our ascent. We had 2 Remoras following us throughout the whole dive trying to attach to one of the divers in the group. Amazing dive and I am so glad they are still here.

Jardines was amazing as well due to two Bull's showing up. They followed us for about 2/3's of the dive. Kind of forgot about all the fish we were seeing and focused on where and when the sharks were showing up. Great day of diving with 8 sharks in total. Happy diving everyone.

 

[warmwaterturner]

Hello Geofish........how's the diving.......we are 30 days from PDC.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

December 13 &14, 2010

Shark Point

The weather right now is quite cold with the days high temp being around 72F/22C. The water temp is still ok, but it gradually dropping and is at around 76F/25C in the morning and 77F/25C in the afternoon. Definitely 5-7mm wetsuit time for us here who are used to warm water diving.

The Shark dives have been amazing lately. We are going out at a time when there are no other boats diving with them, so it is just us. This allows us to stay organized, safe, and keeps us from running into any feeding groups. We saw 10 sharks yesterday the 13th and we saw another 7-8 today. They are getting within touching distance and there are some big mama's out there right now. All of the sharks we are seeing here are female Bull Sharks and many of them are pregnant. The pregnant ones we are seeing look to be anywhere from 9-11ft in length. The Bull Shark tends to grow no larger than 12 feet, and since these females are pregnant, which means they are reaching their maturity we are seeing them at their largest size (pregnant ones that is........not all of them are 9-11 feet). Amazing dives as always and we are just glad to still see them here.

Happy Diving everyone!!

 

[elletek]

It's been quite a while since your last dive report, hope all has been well with you. Have the ports been closed there?

Great news about the sharks, happy to hear that they were not all murdered or driven away. Did you get any photos of the pregnant ones? I bet the are something to see all huge like that. Do you think they will give birth there? It would be great to see the babies!

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

December 27, 2010

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of reports, went back to Colorado for a week to visit the family. The weather right now is pretty chilly with the winds coming from the North bringing temperatures of 15C/57F in the morning today. The high got up to 21C/71F today, but the water is still around 25F/77-78F.

Today we did Tortuga and Barracuda and it was very nice. The visibility was around 70-75ft/21-22m. We ended up seeing two nice size Bull Sharks towards the end of the dive. One was around 7ft and she came within 10-15ft of our group. The second one was off the edge of the sloping reef and I would say she was around the same size. At the very end of the dive another came by to check us out, but I am pretty sure it was the first female we saw. We only saw one BIG Hawksbill on the dive and I am almost positive it was because those Bulls were hanging around looking for breakfast. Great dive!!

Before I left for the States we had been seeing the Sharks every single time we went for the Shark Dive, and now that I am back I was informed that no one has been seeing them in the Shark Dive site. We went out again with divers today and still no sharks. I do not know why they are not there, but it is very strange. We are seeing them on almost every dive down south to Tortugas, but not at the designated shark diving spot. Looks like we might have to take our chances on going to Tortugas for our Shark Dives until they return to the point. Take care everyone, I hope you are enjoying the Holidays! Happy Diving everyone!

 

[elletek]

Welcome back!

It is rumored that a shark was finned yesterday. Maybe all of them were finned, but perhaps maybe they left the area.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/364358-dead-finless-bull-found.html#post5650570

 

[Crux]

Hey Geofish. I will be in Playa Jan 12-19 and am interested in at least one day ofdiving Coz and one day of cenotes. How are the bookings right now? Do we need to get on the ball and reserve spots now? If so I will work on organizing my travel mates and defining the days we want to dive. Thanks in advance

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

Hey Crux,

We are filling up fast every week, there are a lot people coming into town week by week, so I would say if you want to make a reservation make it about a week in advance just so you can guarantee you have a spot. Now you can Private Message me on here or just send me an email at geofish.dive@gmail.com. Look forward to hearing back from you. Take care and Happy Diving!