We're going to call March the month of the Manta!

Hola,

March has started off with a bang and given the great interactions we had today, we're going to call March the month of the Manta. What a exciting day here on Isla San Benedcito. We had some wind today, so we stayed here on El Canon. It's a good thing too because everything was here.

Our fist dive gave us a 73 degree (F) surface temperature, 40 ft. visibility, and a slight current fron the south. As soon as we entered the water we had a good look at a monster Galapagos shark. It was 10ft. long or so. It kept zig-zagging amongst the coral heads. It's curiousity gave us a good interaction. As we made our way to the receiver, we found a hammerhead here and there. I could make out a few more in the distance, but the big school was keeping itself secret this morning. We slowly drifted to our usual spot on this dive, the corner. There we saw three silver tip sharks on the cleaning station. They were circling. We started making our way around the dive site and we ran into two mantas. These mantas were quite friendly making close passes and even following us up during our safety stop.

Our second dive took us in much the same direction. This time we were determined to find the school of hammerheads. We deduced that since they weren't in the blue, they must be over the sand. So we rounded the divesite. We had a few close passes of groups of two and three hammerheads. We even saw some more silvertip sharks. One manta stopped by to see how our hammerhead seeking mission was going, but didn't stick around to see the result. Finally, I saw a group of ten cross from a coral head into the sandy area. We followed closely, staying close to the ground
so not to startle them. Then we saw a large school swimming directly towards us. We watched the school shuffle from in front of us to past us. The group must have been 50 or more strong. It was great. We hoped to see them once more, but instead a friendly manta swam to us and she brought a friend. They circled above our bubbles, tickling their bellies. We knelt in the sand as they brought their bellies closer and closer, making one guest have to lay down in the sand so not to make contact with the manta.

These mantas were enjoying the bubbles so much they just stopped swimming when the bubbles touched them and began to sink on the head of the divers.. Amazing! This is how we ended the second dive.

Dive three was an all manta dive. We found a manta straight away. This was a different individual. Another showed up, then another. Before we knew it as many as 5 mantas circled above us. They were swimming very close to the sand and hovered above our bubbles once again. They even reacted the same way, sinking on top of the heads of a few divers. This is odd behavior, as we interact with these mantas all the time but rarely do they do this. The mantas swarmed around us and we enjoyed their presence for the entirety of the dive. All came up from the dive beaming from the amazing interaction that just took place.
 
Dive four took us to the same site. It was working for us all day, so why change it? We saw two Galapagos sharks and as many as ten silver tip sharks. All at different times. The silvertips are an interesting find since they are all very small silver tips, in the 1.5-2ft range. They must be newborns and we saw them all over the dive site. We saw a few hammerhead silhouettes but they never materialized. Just as the dive was going to end, a manta shows up. This was a black manta and very friendly. Tickling its belly on the bubbles of all the divers as we knelt on the sand. Again this manta displayed the interesting behavior of sinking on top of a diver. So much so that one diver had to lay down in the sand. We were laughing so much our masks filled with water. What got into the mantas today? Regardless, it was an amazing start to the month of the Manta.

Until next time....

Dave Valencia