Trip Report Socorro Real Time Review

[Dan]

We did the first dive around 11:45am for 55 minutes. Visibility was about 40-50 ft. Water temperatures were about 73 F at the bottom to 83 F at the surface. Mild current & drift dive in dive site called El Bajo. Saw schooling of ~ 2-3 ft long Groupers including Golden Groupers, schooling of Grunts, schooling of Snappers, several swimming Green Morays, Cortez Anglefish, Stingray, Cownose Ray.

The 2nd dive was in El Vencedor wreck ~ 47 ft depth at around 1:18pm for 48 minutes. That’s the highlight of the trip. We saw about a dozen Bull Sharks. Some of them were bigger than us. I was kneeling down on the sandy bottom, admiring them, as this was my first time seeing Bull Sharks after 16 years of diving. They came close to me. I just held my ground and they just came closer and closer to as close as 6” (15 cm) to my face. I put my camera in front of my face, between my mask and the Sharks just in case they’d bump test me, it would be on my camera instead of my mask. Lots of schooling fishes above us like in the 1st dive. There were a couple of 4-ft Amber Jack hanging around in the wreck.

I have been diving in El Vencedor 3 times before in 2011, 2013, 2015 but have never seen Bull Sharks there. According to Arturo, the owner of Cabo Pulmo Travel, Home, which was the dive operator that we went diving with today, the Bull Sharks just started to appear there 4 years ago, from September to June of the next year. They were coming there more and more every year and this is a Marine Park, so no Shark feeding allowed. So we were seeing the natural environment & behavior of the Bull Sharks. I guess there are so much smaller fish to hunt and feed on they are just not interested on us and not shy coming towards divers either. Simply incredible dive!

After the dives we went to the local restaurant to have lunch included in the trip.

We are now on half way back to Cabo San Lucas.

 

[drrich2]

We saw about a dozen Bull Sharks. Some of them were bigger than us. I was kneeling down on the sandy bottom, admiring them, as this was my first time seeing Bull Sharks after 16 years of diving. They came close to me. I just held my ground and they just came closer and closer to as close as 6” (15 cm) to my face. I put my camera in front of my face, between my mask and the Sharks just in case they’d bump test me, it would be on my camera instead of my mask.

Thank you for this detail. If a large shark is apt to directly approach a diver and get in his/her face/space, it's good to inform people of that in advance, including how to deal with it. I figure most divers headed to Socorro are seasoned (note: do you guys who dive there see any fairly inexperienced divers), but do some perhaps lack experience diving with big, potentially dangerous sharks? I don't want a situation to arise where someone gets scared and tries to flee instead of handling it the way you did.

They were coming there more and more every year and this is a Marine Park, so no Shark feeding allowed. So we were seeing the natural environment & behavior of the Bull Sharks.

Very interesting. The main place I see bull shark encounters discussed is in Florida diving. They are one of the species drawn by some shark feed operations, but spear fishermen see them and someone they're 'just there.' It's been my impression from various posts (and what little experience I had with them) that they are often skittish of divers (unless spear fishing is involved; I don't know about that, though I watched a video where one charged a spear fisherman from below and was killed). Wonder what @HalcyonDaze thinks?

 

[Dan]

Thank you for this detail. If a large shark is apt to directly approach a diver and get in his/her face/space, it's good to inform people of that in advance, including how to deal with it. I figure most divers headed to Socorro are seasoned (note: do you guys who dive there see any fairly inexperienced divers), but do some perhaps lack experience diving with big, potentially dangerous sharks? I don't want a situation to arise where someone gets scared and tries to flee instead of handling it the way you did.



Very interesting. The main place I see bull shark encounters discussed is in Florida diving. They are one of the species drawn by some shark feed operations, but spear fishermen see them and someone they're 'just there.' It's been my impression from various posts (and what little experience I had with them) that they are often skittish of divers (unless spear fishing is involved; I don't know about that, though I watched a video where one charged a spear fisherman from below and was killed). Wonder what @HalcyonDaze thinks?

I think there will always be some inexperience divers in this trip. That’s why the guests are devided into Sharks, Chevron & Black Mantas. DM, who’s leading inexperience divers (Chevron & Black Mantas groups) would tend to look after his / her guests more closely and may not let the inexperience divers to get too close to the Sharks.

In this Cabo Pulmo Diving with the Bull Sharks, I was the least experience diver. I pretty much followed what the DM told me to do when we encountered the Bull Sharks (by standing on my ground, stay vertical to look big, don’t swim away, etc.). Though the DM was a bit surprised at how close some of the Bull Sharks came to me, as if that has never happened to him or to his guests before. He made some kind of hand gestures that I got way way too close to the Sharks.

I have encountered Tiger Sharks in Cocos & Oceanic Whitetips in Red Sea. So, it wasn’t my first time having face to face with those big fishes.

These Bull Sharks weren’t skittish at all, just like the Tiger Sharks & Oceanic Whitetip. I plan to review & edit my video tomorrow. I’ll post them here afterwards, so you can see it for yourself how they were just cruising around the wreck and ignoring four of us.

 

[Dan]

I forgot to replace my video light batteries when I went to Cabo Pulmo, so I didn’t use any video light and used red filter on a slightly greenish water, instead. I’m not quite happy with the results. Hopefully I can play with video editing later when I’m back at home. For now here are some snapshots of some of the Bull Sharks:

You can see the slightly greenish water in this picture, below:

Here is headshot of the Bull Shark with Pilot Fish on its forehead:

Here is one that has rusted away hook mark on the left side of its mouth:

 

[uncfnp]

We are on the plane home with a stop in Dallas. VeriFly worked smoothly once I figured out how to enter the data.

American Airlines 737 fully loaded.

 

[Dan]

We’ll be going home on tomorrow, Saturday, the 22nd, just > 72 hours after disembarking the Belle Amie. So we have to take the COVID test in the hotel. Just booked our Antigen test at Tesoro hotel for $23 / swab.

They scheduled our appointment at 2:45pm and gave us $20 voucher as a compensation to taking the Antigen test there in the hotel. I used the voucher for lunch at Light House restaurant in front of the Marina. We are sitting outside while having our last lunch at 83F.

The test result will be sent to our email 3-4 hours later that we can print it at the front desk if we need to.

 

[Dan]

I & @HelgeB got the negative Antigen test like the rest of 21 guests. So, we are good to go home tomorrow.

 

[Dan]

Tesoro Los Cabos is terrible place to stay this time of the year. Lots of partying going on all the way to 4am. On top of that we didn’t get the 2 double beds we ordered and ended up getting a king size bed & a sofa bed. They brought in a portable bed, but it’s so firm like sleeping on a concrete floor. I ended up sleeping on the sofa. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to stay here anymore.

 

[uncfnp]

Still sitting in DFW. Flight delayed 14 hours now. Should start boarding (again) shortly.

 

[Dan]

Still sitting in DFW. Flight delayed 14 hours now. Should start boarding (again) shortly.

That’s nuts! Sorry to hear that!

What’s going on? Bad weather?