Our first dive of the day was high with anticipation...

Buenas Tardes from San Benedicto,

It was our first day of diving here and we had a great time! We had a touch of wind so we spent the day diving the famous El Canon. Our first dive of the day was high with anticipation. As we all know this site is known for hammerheads. Today we were not disappointed. The water temp. was a brisk 70 degrees (F), we had 40 ft. visibility, and a slight current from the NE. At the corner, we were welcomed by a number of large hammerheads hanging around the cleaning station. Also at the cleaning station were five very small silver tip sharks. This is the only dive site we see these newborns only 1-1.5ft in length. Very interesting since we do not see any large silvertips here at El Canon. While the group hung out on the corner we saw many hammerheads entering and leaving the visibility. We saw silhouettes above us in the numbers of 20 and we saw a number of small schools of 5 or so approach us closer. Always a great way to start the day.

In dive two we hoped for some more hammerheads. As we arrived at the corner a large school of 50 or more hammerheads glided overhead and then swam towards us. We watched as they showed their profiles and moved in unison. We waited on the corner for more and watched on as the school swam overhead once more. Shortly after, we had a manta make a surprise stop only to continue on with its day. Of course the baby silvertips were still swimming around trying to figure out what to make of all this.

Dive three yielded a hammerhead here and there. We spent most of the time spotting green morays, octopus, scorpionfish, and lobster. Everyone was happy with that since they had been wanting a chance to take some pics of those critters we had been passing by. 

On the final dive of the day, the visibility had dropped off a bit and the current had changed to a more southerly direction. So we moved to the opposite end of the dive site hoping for something new. After enjoying a few playful octopus, we ran into a 8ft Galapagos shark. This shark swam around and around in the same spot, as we have been observing other Galapagos sharks in the last previous trips here in San Benedicto. We also saw it being trailed by one of the newborn silvertips, which was quite cute.

Although we had a little wind, we made the best of it and enjoyed a successful day of diving here at El Canon.

Saludos,

Dave Valencia