Socorro - Nov 2010
The 4 Revillagigedo Islands - Socorro, San Benedicto, Roca Partida and Clarion - lie roughly 250 miles SW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Getting there requires a 24-hour (each way) boat ride from Cabo, and visitors cannot go ashore, as the only "residents" are soldiers at a Mexican naval base on Socorro. We dove on all but Clarion, which is too far West to visit.
This is a manta ray video (witth music) that contains many still shots from this gallery, together with a little video I shot as well. When the window opens, click "Mid-Def" at the top.
The main attraction: Giant Pacific Manta Rays. With wingspreads of 15 feet or more, these gentle giants are the picture of gracefulness. They have no "weapons" (teeth, stingers, etc.), and simply cruise the oceans filtering plankton - like whales. Spending hours watching them swoop and sail overhead is an awe-inspiring experience for divers fortunate enough to do so...like us.
Short video clip of a manta feeding on plankton. Click on "Mid Def" at the top. Notice that, as the manta dives, it opens its gills and mouth wide to take in the most plankton possible.
In addition to mantas, the Revillagigedos have other life. We saw numerous species of sharks, including silkies, Galapagos, silvertip, and scalloped hammerhead sharks (like this one). This species of hammerhead is schooling, and the presence of a few suggests schools of hundreds or thousands beyond view. Unfortunately, these and other species of sharks are being slaughtered by the the millions each year worldwide to satisfy the demand for shark-fin soup in Asia.
Clarion angelfishes in a rare instance of schooling. These colorful fish are usually found by themselves, often cleaning parasites off of passing mantas. I've never seen a school like this swarming so close together, and we speculated that perhaps it was some sort of mating behavior.
Hey, is there something on my forehead? A large (approx. 3 ft. long) remora atop a manta. The remora has a suction cup on top of its head, so when it rides on top of its host, it actually has to ride upside down (like this!). It is unclear whether remoras attach to large pelagics like mantas for protection from predators or in hopes of scavenging food...or both. This remora has some passengers of its own; the silver "spots" are actually some type of sea-lice-like parasite that could be seen scurrying around his body as he passed by!
