Update on Galapagos??

[boulderjohn]

Everything I have heard is that the chances of seeing Whale sharks in July-August-Sept is nearly 100% and 50-50 the rest of the time.

Then I thought, well maybe I'll just go to Utila and see whale sharks another time somewhere else, but the more research I did it seemed like Galapagos in the Summer is pretty much your only reasonably convenient way of having guaranteed encounters. So August '09 it is

Nothing is guaranteed.

I was there last week. Our first attempts at Darwin were unsuccessful for whale sharks, with poor visibility being an issue. They could have been passing reasonably nearby without our knowing it.

We tried again. Our first group of divers splashed in, and our group followed about two minutes later. During those two minutes, our first group got a good view of a whale shark, but we missed it.

On our last attempt, our group was close to giving up and just drifting with the current. A whale shark came up behind us and to the right flank of our group. Our first people saw it as it passed them and tried to alert people. The DM got the message and used his noisemaker to alert everyone. We all swam frantically to the right. I started on the left flank and was about 10 feet behind the rest. Everyone on the right saw it. The three of us on the left did not--the visibility made that much difference.

So, no whale sharks for me.



There was another liveaboard in the area then, and we heard that they had no whale shark sightings at all, so at least most of our group saw one. BTW, it is not easy to watch everyone else's euphoric celebrations when you missed it.

 

[geek]

I had no idea that whale sharks were so huge. I saw a pic of one that someone had taken and the way the picture was taken didn't represent its true size.

I went here, and saw that they are HUGE:

WHALE SHARK - Zoom Sharks

It says that they are filter feeders. With such a big mouth, has anyone ever been swallowed whole? That diagram with the tiny little scuba diver makes it look totally possible.

 

[fairybasslet]

BTW, it is not easy to watch everyone else's euphoric celebrations when you missed it.

ITA. Sorry you missed it. We were lucky that we had better vis, and some of us (the people last to splash) saw the baby at Wolf, but we had absolutely no action at Darwin.

It kind of reminds me of my trip to Curacao where some of us were lucky enough to see eagle rays (and some of us even got photos) and one person kept yelling at her husband "Why didn't you let me know they were there."

 

[Scubagal]

It kind of reminds me of my trip to Curacao where some of us were lucky enough to see eagle rays (and some of us even got photos) and one person kept yelling at her husband "Why didn't you let me know they were there."

Glad I was able to provide some amusement. Actually I was more upset with the Divemaster for simply pointing out into the blue, instead of giving the signal for a ray. Scott and I thought he was pointing at the school of barracuda that many in our group missed.

 

[fairybasslet]

Glad I was able to provide some amusement. Actually I was more upset with the Divemaster for simply pointing out into the blue, instead of giving the signal for a ray. Scott and I thought he was pointing at the school of barracuda that many in our group missed.

Well, you did give Lloyd a few digs during dinner. Sorry, I hope you weren't offended but it was kind of funny after some red wine.And poor Robyn totally skipped that dive all together.

Besides, you are going to be luckier than all of us and see tons of whale sharks, eagle rays and hammerheads when you go.

And if you want to laugh at me, one of the divers and I went the wrong way on Cousins Rock and totally missed all of the sea horses. On that same dive, only Angie and the DM saw the manta. Oh, and don't forget Judy's yellow puffer fish story.

 

[fairybasslet]

BoulderJohn, did you get more diving in since you didn't do the land tours? Or did you get your permits back?

 

[newdiver48]

wow, yelling, not....but I agree, I thought the DM was pointing at the barracuda. Good catch with the pic however. Don't forget, what happens in Curacao stays in Curacao.

I would have thought the dm would have done the arm flinging like a ray motion instead of just pointing where the big school of barracuda were, just my 2 cents...

 

[fairybasslet]

wow, yelling, not....but I agree, I thought the DM was pointing at the barracuda. Good catch with the pic however. Don't forget, what happens in Curacao stays in Curacao.

I would have thought the dm would have done the arm flinging like a ray motion instead of just pointing where the big school of barracuda were, just my 2 cents...

View attachment 47889

Cute smilie Scott. Kind of sums up our dinners.

Don't worry, Connie's not mad at me.

 

[boulderjohn]

BoulderJohn, did you get more diving in since you didn't do the land tours? Or did you get your permits back?

There was a lot of confusion regarding this. The problem is that we were originally scheduled to go with the Eco Explorer, a large, new, twin-hulled boat with a high cruising speed. When they lost their permit, we were transferred to the Estrella Del Mar, an older, single hulled boat with a far lower crusing speed. They often decried the fact that they could not do the land tours, but I am not sure how much difference that would have made. It took us a long time to get from site to site, and we had minimal surface intervals when we were not traveling. It took us 20 hours to get to Darwin Island, and those were 20 hours on rough seas. Much of that was during the night. I only woke up once that night, but then again, I never got back to sleep as I concentrated on not being hurled from my bunk. I suspect that the planned land tours would have been relatively brief visits during normal surface intervals.

If we had been able to stay with the Eco Explorer, as originally planned, we would have slept better on the more stable platform, and we would have had more time at each site. I think the originally-planned excursions were based on using the Eco Explorer, and the changes in the plan were partially due to the lesser speed of the Estrella Del Mar as much as on rule changes. I could be wrong.

 

[fairybasslet]

This is what Aggressor's itinerary is like. It definitely didn't take us 20 hours to get to Wolf but there definitely some rough seas on the return trip. First time in my life I almost got seasick.
Itinerary Galapagos Aggressor I & II

Thursday

* AM: ARRIVAL TO SAN CRISTOBAL - LUNCH AND BRIEFING
* PM: CHECK OUT DIVE AT PLAYA OCHOA AND WELCOME COCKTAIL

Friday

* AM: TWO DIVES AT MOSQUERA ISLAND
* PM: HIKING AT NORTH SEYMOUR- DEPARTING TO WOLF

Saturday

* AM: TWO DIVES AT WOLF ISLAND
* PM: TWO DIVES AT WOLF ISLAND

Sunday

* AM: TWO DIVES AT DARWIN ISLAND
* PM: TWO DIVES AT DARWIN ISLAND

Monday

* AM: TWO DIVES AT DARWIN ISLAND
* PM: ONE DIVE AT WOLF ISLAND

Tuesday

* AM: TWO DIVES AT COUSIN ROCKS
* PM: HIKING AND SWIMMING AT BARTOLOME ISLAND

Wednesday

* AM: ONE DIVE AT GORDON´S ROCK AND HIKING EXPLORATION AT SOUTH PLAZA ISLAND.
* PM: PUERTO AYORA - VISIT TO CHARLES DARWIN RESEARCH STATION

Thursday

* AM: CHECK OUT AND DEPARTURE FROM SAN CRISTOBAL