We decided to stay another day at roca, and it was the right decision!

We were contemplating leaving Roca Partida for Isla Socorro, but everyone is happy we stayed. This morning was calm, quiet, and no clouds to be seen. At 7:30 am, we all excitedly arranged our gear and headed to Roca in the pangas. As we approached masked and brown boobies dove in the water around us. We watched as the Frigates soared high above us. In the water, it was glorious. More than 100 foot visibility, no current, and a brisk 71 degree (F) surface temp. welcomed us to the blue. We took our time getting our bearings slowly making our way down. At 50 ft. we stopped to watch the countless whitetip reef sharks resting piled on top of one another. There had to be more than 80 in just the few ledges we briefly observed. Our mission this morning was to experience again the big schools of sharks we witnessed yesterday. Watching the baitfish and venturing into the blue we went. A few Galapagos sharks gently moved by, but didn't seem very interested in us.  But within a few minutes, we found the school. It was 30 or more Galapagos sharks strong with two hammerheads oddly following from behind. They gave our group a nice pass, slowly moved away and came back again. It was impressive to see 30 or more sharks of that size (~10 ft each) school together.

Between dives we spotted a large pod of bottlenose dolphins playing near the rock. It wasn't dive time yet, so we took everyone over for a little snorkel. The dolphins were very playful and approached us willingly. They were swimming circles clicking and chirping away. As I dove down to take a closer look, the dolphins seemed to be curious and came closer as if to ask why I was down so deep. They swam next to me trying to bring me along with their group, but I could only hold my breath for so long. They swam away as I surfaced, seemingly disappointed with my inadequacy. The pangas circled us and dolphins took their cue, bowriding circles around us. Zipping to fro. How did they have so much energy? This went on for 45 minutes before we had to head back and get ready for the next dive. The 
dolphins continued to bowride and jump high above the panga as we made our way back to the Solmar V. 

On dive two my group agreed to stay in the north point and wait for our chance to see the big school of Galapagos sharks again. We serached for about 5 minutes and they appeared. They approached us head on and we split the school. Some between us and Roca, the others out in the blue. We were surrounded and loving it. The school of sharks left and came back, but this time they had a school of ~20 hammerheads  below them. At this moment everything seemed to go quiet. We were in the blue, no baitfish around, and more than 50 sharks schooling in front of us. We tried not to impose on their space, which proved a good decision because they approached very close. In the silence you could concentrate on all their details such as how they moved together, we observed some had tags, and others had jacks shadowing them. The hammerheads circled like a cyclone before us and swam under us and away. The 30 Galapagos were with 3 silvertips this time and made an unforgettable dive. During our safety stop we watched 20 or more wahoo and 30 yellowfin tuna buzz by us. A nice way to end any dive. 

Dive three was more great diving. The panga dropped us right on the north point and right on top of the school of Galapagos. There were still 30 galapagos, with 3 silvertips and two hammerheads. We sat in the same spot the entire dive watching them move away and approach again. At one point, the school was between Dani's group and my group. Adil, our videographer, got some great footage of all the action. We were all so glad we stayed another day at Roca Partida.
 

Something worth noting here was I observed some evidence of fishing today on Roca Partida. I noticed one yellowfin tuna and one galapagos shark had a hook and line trailing many feet behind. In addition, I saw some fishing monofilament attached to the north side of Roca at about 40ft. It saddens me to know that when we are not here, others are here taking illegally what we cherish so much.

We're off to Isla San Benedicto! Until next time...

Dave Valencia