Northwest Dive Club

I just returned from a trip to the Revillagigedos Islands (known also as Socorro Islands, after the name of the largest island) aboard the Solmar V. 250 miles south of Cabo San Lucas and a 24 hour boat ride each way out into the Pacific Ocean, the islands are frequented by Giant Pacific Manta Rays, one of nature's most graceful creatures. This was my fifth trip to Socorro in the past 15 years, and it remains one of my favorite destinations! Not only is it one nonstop flight away from Seattle to Cabo, but I never tire of swimming with mantas!

These magnificent pelagics can have wingspreads of 15 feet or more, and spend their time cruising the open seas in search of plankton, just as whales do. We saw dolphins and several species of sharks (silkies, Galapagos, silvertips, whitetips and scalloped hammerheads) on this trip, too, but giant mantas were definitely the main attraction.

Here are a few other shots from the trip:












You can find my entire gallery of photos from this trip at http://www.underwaterreflections.com/Un ... 4314_i6vUi

That is awesome! I want to go! Thanks for sharing, you got some great shots!

I have a deposit for a trip there in 2012, looking forward to it, nice pictures, thanks for posting.

Can you list the big animals that you saw this time ?? Whale Sharks, Hammerheads etc ---

Amazing trip and great pictures!

The color of those Angelfishes? is wonderful!

Curt McNamee wrote:Can you list the big animals that you saw this time ?? Whale Sharks, Hammerheads etc ---

We didn't see any whale sharks (in fact, I've never seen one and I've been there five times), although supposedly another boat diving there around the same time saw one. They're kind of a long shot to see there. Most of the sharks are at Roca Partida. We saw scalloped hammerheads on several dives, as well as silvertip sharks, silky sharks, Galapagos sharks, and lots of whitetip sharks (which barely count - they're kinda like nurse sharks - just spend most of their time lying around). We also saw dolphins on several dives. And of course mantas mantas mantas! There are whales around there in the spring, but not this time of year, so we didn't see any of them.

Curt McNamee wrote:I have a deposit for a trip there in 2012, looking forward to it, nice pictures, thanks for posting.

Which trip are you on for 2012?

blackwater wrote:

Curt McNamee wrote:I have a deposit for a trip there in 2012, looking forward to it, nice pictures, thanks for posting.

Which trip are you on for 2012?

The boat leaves the dock Nov 18th 2012 from Cabo