Playa del Carmen Dive Report

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

March 23, 2009: Tortugas and Sabalos

We are back! Finally done with the IDC and IE. Now I am a OWSI and it feels really nice. Had to get back into the water today and it felt so good to not have to give any presentations or be graded on anything. The weather has been fantastic lately and the water has seriously looked like glass. Today was another great morning with the wind blowing from the East at 10.34MPH/9knots. The temperature at the time of the dive was 77F/25C.

Tortugas: The water was wonderful at Tortugas with the visibility at about 80ft/24m. Right when we got to the bottom we spotted a beautiful Nurse Shark huddling under a coral head. We saw about 6 turtles today and another Nurse Shark as well as a number of Cubera Snapper. What a great dive and it was so nice to get back into the water especially to Tortuga.

Sabalos: The current was pretty strong today at Sabalos and the visibility was pretty nice at about 70ft/21m. Saw 3 turtles, a great bid Green Moray, a couple big Cubera Snapper, and a the always beautiful large schools of Grunts, Mutton Snapper, and Chubs. Great dive as well.

Hope everyone is doing well, Hey John, Conrad, and Gord, wish I could have done some diving with you guys during your stay, but next time!

On deck for March 24, 2009: Moche Deep and Chunzumbul

 

[scubajcf]

CONGRATS TO MO and MAX!!!

jcf

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

March 24, 2009: Barracuda and Sabalos

The wind yesterday was pretty strong and the water was very choppy. The temperature at the time of the dive was 76F/23.8C.

Barracuda: For the last couple months Barracuda has been great. The visibility even on a day like yesterday was still fair at about 60ft/18m. We saw 2 turtles, a couple Moray's and tons and tons of fish. Really nice dive, the current was pretty strong so it was sort of like a movie projector, just find that neutral buoyancy and watch it go by.

Sabalos: Little better visibility at about 70ft/21m and a lot of Turtles. We saw a total of 4 turtles at Sabalos, one smaller one surfacing, really cool to see. No Tarpon still.

Sabalos is the Spanish word for Tarpon and they named this reef after them because it is almost guaranteed to see them there. But since the sharks are not leaving the Tarpon have not arrived in full yet. Shops are still feeding the sharks so they have no reason to leave, and ultimately this is totally throwing the whole biology of both of these animals off. The bull sharks get fed steak by certain shops which is not part of their diet and when the sharks are here they are pregnant and this kind of diet messes with their whole physiology. And the Tarpon come here to eat as well and now that the sharks are still here they are no where to be found. I wish we could get a big group together to try and stop the feeding practices.

If anyone would like to contact me and maybe try and set something up my email is geofish.dive@gmail.com.

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Hello Geofish

You are totally right !!

Shark feedng is very controversial even more so without the use of cages, but if you are going to put chum in the water the least you can do is use local fish and fish products (eventhough Bulls eat everything as the can also go in fresh water along rivers or estuaries).

In my 8 year experience with the Great Whites at Guadalupe island we have moved almost 100 % away from chumming. If there is small amounts of bait in the water it is only used to attract but no feeding goes on any more. We are now using submersible cages at 40 ft and the GWs come around to check them out without being fed.

Images and info at

www.tiburonblanco.org
www.tiburonblanco.com.mx


Someone in Playa should start regulating the stuff going on with the Bulls, also I am glad no accidents have happend yet (that I am aware of at least).

Best is always to respect these amazing animals and their environment as well as using common sense.

 

[clenaghen]

Sounds like you might want to start up some dialogue with the other dive shops and get the topic out on the table and in some sort of discussion forum. Maybe a Playa area dive shop committee or something. Either other dive shops do not know or understand the potential consequences of this, or they are using it as a strategic business advantage. In that case, for those dive shops that are against chumming and feeding, they may want to start advertising the fact that they don't. An informed consumer that understands why it is or may be bad to feed sharks may shy away from those businesses who do feed sharks and take their business to those shops that do not.

My personal opinion is that you are potentially conditioning the sharks to associate humans with food.

 

[cavew0man]

Hey Geofish... you know who's doing it. I don't know what kind of pressure can be organized locally, or how much success you'd have, but I do agree it should stop...

We (myself and some local friends in the business) were talking about this before a shark dive a while back. And comments were made to the effect of "We know that this shouldn't be done, and these guys shouldn't do this, but other dive ops are now able to say.. we don't feed them... we're good citizens", and then reap the benefits of an extended and predictable shark dive season.

So.... maybe if you can make a bunch of noise.... ? I don't know! The thinking people would back you..... but the shortsighted ones are going to be a problem.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think going around to the dive shops that I know are against feeding and talking to them about doing something about this is a good idea. Even though nothing has happened yet there is a good chance in the coming years that something will happen. These are wild and aggressive animals and to have them associate humans with food is bad news for everyone. Thanks guys and I think the more people on this the better chance we have of something changing. Small up and coming Geofish can't do it alone.

Oh and Cavewomen we definitely know who it is and it is 2 shops that have quite a bit of pull in this town. But we are going to try our best to get this resolved.

Port is closed today with 20mph/17knot winds from the east. So we sent a nice group to Chiken Ha cenote. With what the weather is looking like for the next few days it looks like we will be doing quite a bit of cenote diving.

 

[cavew0man]

Good luck with it - it's a good cause. If I ever get myself out from under this pile of Flash and HTML I am currently buried under, I will come and dive with you guys someday soon!

 

[Ed Hatfield]

Might as well start the ball rolling.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

March 27, 2009

Port is closed AGAIN!!! Winds are blowing from the SSE at 22mph/19knots. The waves are 7.5ft/2.5m. We took a nice group to Gran Cenote and Casa Cenote though, two great dives.

Hopefully next week will be ok because the rest of this week looks pretty bad. Tomorrow we are due for 19.5mph/17knot winds from the SSE and 9ft/3m waves. Someone do a dance or something for this weather to stop PLEASE!!