Scuba Diver Mexico
Contributor
For those of you diving in the area who are interested in observing and learning more about small animals, and more especially nudibranchs and their behavior please check this dive report.
Puerto Vallarta and the bay of Banderas has become popular with divers lately. This is especially so in the winter months when divers visit from the USA and Canada.
The area is not the Caribbean in any way. In the winter, temperatures drop even as much as southern California waters and also the visibility can be reduced due to plankton blooms in the upper layers. The bay is very deep and thus has cold water upwellings making it colder than the waters north and south. Some big animals are around, such as Mantas and humpbacks (you won't see them underwater too often due to the low viz though) but there is still plenty more very interesting small stuff to see that is absent in the Caribbean. For small animals the winter months very much surpass the warm water months.
This is an area especially well suited for you macro photographers who have seen all the small stuff and the larger nudibranchs in say California or British Columbia but wish to see / photograph more tropical species and observe how they behave. The area is also great for shooting macro video.
Several guides have been published in recent years that include many of the small species to be found in the bay.
Puerto Vallarta and the bay of Banderas has become popular with divers lately. This is especially so in the winter months when divers visit from the USA and Canada.
The area is not the Caribbean in any way. In the winter, temperatures drop even as much as southern California waters and also the visibility can be reduced due to plankton blooms in the upper layers. The bay is very deep and thus has cold water upwellings making it colder than the waters north and south. Some big animals are around, such as Mantas and humpbacks (you won't see them underwater too often due to the low viz though) but there is still plenty more very interesting small stuff to see that is absent in the Caribbean. For small animals the winter months very much surpass the warm water months.
This is an area especially well suited for you macro photographers who have seen all the small stuff and the larger nudibranchs in say California or British Columbia but wish to see / photograph more tropical species and observe how they behave. The area is also great for shooting macro video.
Several guides have been published in recent years that include many of the small species to be found in the bay.
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