Puerto Vallarta dive report

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Hello everyone,



The diving at Marietas (both islands) and Morro was nice today (typical winter dive day). A little warmer than expected.

Lots of humpbacks and dolphins on the way out there.

Temperature 73F and 69-71F below the thermocline, viz from 20 to 30 feet.

Morrro had much better viz under 40 ft.


Marietas had a bunch of interesteing nudibranchs and of course the songs of the male humpbacks could be heard all over.


Here are the images of the nudies Alicia Hermosillo found and identified in open water and also in the cavern areas of Marietas.

Flickr: * Alicia's Photostream

No species names yet, but they will be up soon in the Puerto Vallarta small animal and nudibranch dive report here at SB.

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Between Caletas and Majahuitas (south bay) the temp was 74 F from 0 to 50 ft, visibility was about 20 feet and there was moderate surge. The first thermocline was at 50 ft with temp droping to 70 F and viz increasing to 60-70 ft. Under 100 feet the viz was awesome, water motionless and the temp dropped to 64 F.

Some really cool deeper water fish were seen in the colder water under 100 ft such as Popeye Catalufa (Pritigenys serrula) http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=pristigenys_serrula and some large groups of really nice spotted Cabrillas (species name pending).

Mantis shrimp, Oranguntang crab and skeleton shrimp were seen as well . Tambja abdere, Hypselodoris agassisii,Glosodoris baumani nudibranchs were present.


Los Arcos at the wall and moorings had better surface visibility (about 30 ft) with a mild to strong north current and water temp of about 75 F. The first thermocline was at 90 feet dropping down to 64 F and the second one was at 135 ft with a temp of 60 F. Viz under 90 ft was very good.

Bajaeolis bertchi, Tylodina fungina http://slugsite.us/bow/nudwk315.htm
http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=16722
and Flabellina fogata nudibranchs (the last one a beautiful los Arcos endemic http://diver.net/chris/2008.06.Puerto_Vallarta/2008.06.15/) were seen in the shalows. Pellagic as well as the local reef fish were seen in very large numbers at the begining of he wall. Also in the shallows a school of mobula were seen cruising by ...

The deep wreck area in the northern part of the bay has good viz at depth of 145 Ft and 64 F water temp.

 

[pvscuba]

Thanks to Scuba Diver Mexico (is that you, Roberto?) for helping us update the report since we´ve not been as active at it as we should...

Wednesday at Los Arcos we did 3 dives since we needed to complete an Advanced Open Water certification.
Dive 1 at Devil´s Canyon went down to 104ft. Temperature was 59F at it´s minimum, yet since we found not a marked thermocline we didn´t really feel the cold (or was it because I was using my new Pinnacle torso heater? lol). Viz was at around 40 ft at the deepest part.
Dive 2 at Point of Mismaloya. Down to a max depth of 68 ft we encountered a min temp of 67F and viz in the 30-ft range
Dive 3 at Christ´s Pinnacle. Min temp was 73F at a max depth of 58ft. Viz was in the 25-30 ft range.

greetings from Alex at PVScuba

 

[darkH20diver]

Wanted to give Alex and PV Scuba a shoutout for an excellent dive trip March 7th. Capt Moses and divemaster Hector took a small group (3) of us to El Morro and another close second dive. Excellent rental equipment and safe operating procedures. Hector was the best divemaster I have dove with in 10 yrs. I would recommend them to divers visiting Puerto Vallarta. I also recommend this destination as a family vacation area. Its our first visit and we are having a blast.

 

[Diver Rick]

My son and I are arriving March 30th for my brother's wedding. We are going to fit in a few days of diving with Alex for sure.

I can hardly wait!!

 

[pvscuba]

Within the past few days , the water in our area has cooled off to its normal winter temps. It had been a relatively warm winter until about 10 days ago.

All our dive sites have been about the same, with surface temperatures in the low to mid 70s. The difference is that now we have very distict thermoclines with temperatures dropping to the low 60s within the first 40-50ft and even upper 50s for the deeper dives.

Never fear, though, as we´ll provide you with 7mm wetsuits and 5mm hoods.

Visibility has been normal for winter diving, with averages at about 20 ft, and clearer water below the thermoclines (50ft+).

hope to dive with you when you visit PV.

greetings from Alex and the rest of the PVScuba team.

 

[Osvidar]

Alex,
I just caught on that you are with PVS so I'll expect that recommendation.
got any buddies in the business over around Cabo? We stop there on our trip too.
Tom

 

[Scuba Diver Mexico]

Here is an image and also a minivideo taken a few days ago by Marimar (a local dive master in training ) from an amazing purple colored frog fish in Marietas just under the moorings.

Frog fish on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgjQ8VbjYM&feature=channel_page


Yes, the water is down to the normal temperatures and viz for this time of the year, so it is time to enjoy the smaller stuff and observe their behavior.

This frog fish is an Antennarius Avalonis

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/summary/speciessummary.php?genusname=Antennarius&speciesname=avalonis

 

[pvscuba]

Alex,
I just caught on that you are with PVS so I'll expect that recommendation.
got any buddies in the business over around Cabo? We stop there on our trip too.
Tom

Hi Tom,

Sorry, don´t have any contacts in Cabo that I can offer.

cheers

 

[sailor1127]

I dove twice with PV Scuba in March 2009. Both times Alex made me feel most welcome ashore and Ramses was fantastic as Instructor and Dive Master out in the Bay. Water temps were low 70s at depth, warm sun for surface intervals. Plenty of fresh fruit, sandwiches, water and soda pop for all aboard their comfortable dive boat.

I took PADI specialty classes and within a week of my return the new plastic C Cards had arrived in the mail to my home -- a testament to coordination between PV Scuba and PADI HQ.

I have been diving before in PV, with another good dive operation, but next year I think I'll go back to PV Scuba and take more classes as the attention they give to their students is great, the rental equipment for friends (I have all my own stuff) is top quality and in great shape, the boat is one of the best I have been on anywhere in the world -- and they are just Great