Monday, September 30, 2013

It was a great day to see great whites!

A beautiful day at the island, flat ocean, no wind, sunny, no clouds!! We started the day with one very active shark that showed up at 6:50 am. This large shark was soon joined by his friend, so we decided it was time to get the submersible cage into the water! From then on the  dropped the submersible cage into the water and for the rest of the day it was a blast! Sharks were coming around the submersible from every direction, the excitement inside of the cage was very high!  For the most part we had 3 sharks around the cage, coming from every which way and opening their mouth, showing teeth! We like watching when they come straight up from depth, because it clearly shows their brown and white color distinctive of them before they make their way to the surface cages.  It was funny to see a seal swimming and chasing two white sharks beneath the Solmar V where they like to hide! Water temp was in the high 60's with a vis of 80'+! It was a great day to see great whites! 
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Our day started off slow but picked up by noon!

Even though we anchored in front of an elephant seal colony, the action of the day took a little while to get going.  We spotted our first shark at 6:40 am, and our excited guests were eager to get suited up and into the cages! Before we knew it we had 4 sharks swimming around, for almost 2 hours they were hanging out at 40-50 ft deep, not spending too much time around our surface cages. By noon we had seen 5 different sharks staying deep, and we were happy to recognize two anonymous sharks we met on our last trip! The wind started to get so heavy that we couldn't use the submersible cage, so we decided to change spots.  We anchored at a southern point for the rest of the day where we saw one of the males we had seen in the morning when we anchored off of the elephant seal colony!  Water temp was in the low 70's with 80'+ visibility.
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Thursday, September 19, 2013

The girls are starting to arrive at Guadalupe! We had lots of action and 5 different sharks today!

We had a very good day with lots of action counting up to 5 different sharks, we started seeing sharks as as early as 7:00 am and we spotted the first unidentified female, she was about 12ft with a ton of energy.  She exhausted that energy breaching several times, which got everyone excited! 2 Other males joined her and kept us on the edge our seats!  The surface cages were busy with all the activity of the sharks, and the submersible cage was going off.  The female was circling around the submersible cage, up to the surface cages, and then back down around the submersible!  There might have been another female there, that we had trouble identifying, but this is a sign the girls are starting to arrive at Guadalupe! The visibility was great at near 100' until the late afternoon when it started to drop, water temp was 70F (good for a 7mm wet suit) with the air temp at 77F with a very enjoyable southern wind!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Thursday, September 12, 2013

4 to 5 sharks around the Solmar V all day!

On the last day of this trip there was 4 to 5 White sharks swimming around the SolmarV and getting close to the cages for just about the entire day. Visibility was 80ft/24m, water temp 70F/21C and the morning was overcast but towards noon opened up and was sunny for the rest of the day. The sea seas calm and now we are having a nice smooth crossing back to Ensenada. Highlight of the day: one shark breaching 6ft/2m above the surface!!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Today tarted a bit slow but picked up after lunch!

Our first day at Guadalupe Island started a bit slow, with not a whole lot of action in the early morning closer to lunch things started to pick up! We ended our day with three large male great white sharks, the shark action wouldn't stop and so our divers stayed in the water until the last bit of sunlight was gone! Water temp was 70F/21C very nice. Sky was clear and sunny and to finish with this great day we had our clasic BBQ on the bow of the boat!  Everyone is very happy and excited about tomorrow!
Claudio DM

Sunday, September 8, 2013

All our guests are ecstatic with the photos they are getting! We got some great cages shots with big wide open mouth that you can see though the opening of gills!

Today we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. The natural colors hitting the island making it turn in pale yellow, there was not a single cloud in the sky all day, we had a beautiful flat ocean, with no wind at all, air temp 26°C.
As early as 6:40 we had the first visit of a 12ft long male coming back and frwd past the surface cages which mean our first diver in the water was at 7:00, minutes later we had the arrival of a juvenile male of about 9ft length. For a long time we only had these two sharks striking with power and speed at our bait on the surface. From the sun deck looking straight down gave our guests a great perspective to see how thick and long these beautiful animals are! They take their time to slowly swim just beneath the surface breaking it with the dorsal fin. For our last 3 hours we had 5 other sharks very active doing all type of things on the surface including passing  so close they almost touched the cage. All our guests are ecstatic with the photos they are getting!  We got some great cages shots with big wide open mouth that you can see though the opening of gills!  The submersible cage offers another perspective to photograph the sharks, the  shadow of the boat makes it look darker. When they weren't around the cages, the sharks spent a lot of time hiding beneath the boat, and sometimes you can see them from the submersible but not from our surface cages. For the last part of the day a large male, "CC" showed up and stayed until the end of the diving day! We had to break everything down before our journey home and even then the sharks continued to hang around the stern of the boat! Water temp is 69°F and a vis of about 110ft!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Saturday, September 7, 2013

4 Sharks around the cages almost the entire time, with 9 different sharks throughout the action packed day!

Hola, today was a great day, sunny all day, calm sea, and super blue water. We had great whites everywhere, we had at least four of them around the cages almost the entire time!  We spotted 9 different sharks throughout the action packed day!  We had small and large great whites, and a few of them were even breaching!  Everyone on board is having a great time, and after all that action we ended our day with a shoreline cruise along the coast to see the elephant seals resting at the beach.  It was a very solid day at Guadalupe Island.
Claudio DM

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Our adventure began before we got to Isla Guadalupe!

An hour and thirty minutes after our departure to Isla Guadalupe, we ran into a school of white sided dolphins we did a few loops they all cooperated doing jumps, surfing the waves together in front of boat but that's not all! Two blue whales were there too although they didn't get as close to the boat as the dolphins! 
We had a beautiful weather here at the island, all day sunny, no wind at all and smooth surface, air temp from 24° to 26°C. It was only about 30 minutes after we got our divers in the cages when spotted the first shark, we only saw it pass by about 50’ from the boat, which we can estimate thanks to the 100' visibility. The methodical shark was taking its time to around the cages, it was cool to have the opportunity to observe it in great detail.  By lunch time we had seen 4 different sharks, including Pancho Villa, a 13' male but he didn't stay for long.  It was good to see him though, I know we'll see him again soon. Pancho Villa was the only identified shark of the day, the other sharks remain unidentified! As usual our day ended up with a pleasant panga ride to the elephant seals, Guadalupe seals, nurseries buy Geronimo!
Dive Inst
Daniel Zapata

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Our first dive report from Isla Guadalupe!

We woke up with to a cloudy sky, at some point along the day felt a little of rain, day temp 64F.  Today we counted up to 7 or 8 different sharks, the first one showed up at 6:50 am to start the day! This unidentified 9' male kept us very exited on the surface, while he was circling the cages below.  Soon after a second shark joined us but stayed mostly down deep and didn't spend much time at the surface.The submersible cage was busy going up and down, allowing our certified divers a closer look at the two to three great whites hanging around at 50-60'.
The sharks were taking their time cruising slowly the whole time, the vis. was great as always up to 100’.  Just before lunch time things started to pickup, we had even more sharks, with as many as 5 in one frame and it was busy from that moment on! From the submersible cage we watched as the massive sharks did several partial breaches! The great whites were coming so close to the cage, we had great photo opportunities, and at 4:00 we met an unexpected guest!  Zapata, a  popular15'+ male showed up for even better photo ops!  Right about the same time we had a couple dolphins hanging around the boat, keeping our surface guests excited!  Today the only identified shark was Zapta, the others were all 9-12' long males with no tag.  We finished the day with a sunset panga ride along the nurseries of baby elephant seals courtesy of Geronimo!
Dive Inst.
Daniel Zapata