Chris’ Dive Experiences: Roca Partida, Socorro Islands MX

Roca Partida sits about 70 miles west of its closest neighboring island, and is 350 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, your launch point for your journey to the Socorro Islands. It is the smallest of the Isla Revillagigedos (otherwise known as the Socorro Islands) at only 3.5 acres. What the island lacks in land mass it makes up for in underwater marine life.

Being so small and sitting out in the middle of the Pacific, this site can either be very calm or completely undivable. On this particular morning in March, we were awakened by the clatter of kitchenware falling, along with a myriad of other things flying around the boat, as it was rocked by a very large swell on its approach to the island.

Loading into the zodiac was a little challenging because of the large swells rolling through. Once underway we slipped into our gear, timed our approach to the island with the swell and performed our negative back-rolls off the side of the zodiac in unison, then met up underwater.

As I descended down to 118 feet I took in my surroundings. Roca Partida underwater was a sheer wall as deep as the eye could see, mostly covered by urchins. There were crevices  carved into the wall at various depths, each of which seemed to be packed with white tip sharks stacked on top each other and huge trophy sized spiny lobster. Once I peeled my eyes off of the life on the amazing wall, I noticed the water surrounding the island was in action overload. Even with the 80 feet of visibility, it was hard to see very far due to how much life was enjoying the current sweeping past the island. You could almost fall into a trance by the movement and flow of all the marine life in the remarkably blue water, all the while being serenaded by the passing humpback whales whose singing could be heard throughout the entire dive.

As we neared the southwest corner of the island, the current was slamming into the wall, creating very strong down currents.  So strong that you had to kick with all your might while at the same time inflating your BC so as not to be shoved down beyond your depth limits. Once we stabilized ourselves by finding a sweet spot along the wall with minimal down current, we could enjoy the show taking place in front of us.

Off in the distance was a huge school of scalloped hammerhead sharks closing in toward us. In no time they were over our heads, then again fading off into the distance. We were in awe of the close passes by silky, silvertip and Galapogos sharks as we swam along the wall. Mixed in this marine life parade were huge jacks keeping pace with the sharks. As we started our slow ascent up the wall, we were greeted by an enormous pacific manta ray with a wingspan that must have been over 20 feet. Sweeping right over our heads, this manta seemed to love being caressed by our expelled bubbles on its belly.

It is generally standard practice of boats travelling to the Socorro Islands to spend 2 days diving Roca, but due to the large swell and strong currents we were only able to stay for less than a day and only get to do 3 dives. Despite that, we were rewarded with lots of big animal encounters and a challenging but very rewarding set of dives that we will never forget.

Photo credit: Norbert Probst

Creature Feature: Banded Sea Krait

The banded sea krait is an amphibious species of snake, closely related to the Asian cobra, that spends most of its life at sea but comes to land to digest its food, shed its skin, and to reproduce (able to spend up to 10 days at a time on land). Sea kraits are often spotted along the coasts of the eastern Indian Ocean, east through Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to islands of the south-western Pacific, and north to Vietnam, southern China, Taiwan, and the Ryuku Islands, Japan. Occasionally you may see them in the waters off Australia and New Zealand, or as far as the western coast of Central America. The banded sea krait is usually found hunting for food in shallow tropical waters surrounding coral islands, coral reefs and mangroves, to depths of around thirty feet (but some species may dive up to 100 feet). Some species prefer hard bottoms (corals), while others prefer soft bottoms (mud or sand) in which to hunt their prey. Most sea snakes feed upon fishes of various sizes and shapes, including eels.

The sea krait's body has evolved to adapt to its curious semi-aquatic lifestyle. Like its brothers the terrestrial snake, it has larger scales on its underbelly and a cylindrical body shape to aid in climbing onto land and in low trees, but its tail is paddle-shaped to help it speed through the water. With valved nostrils to keep out saltwater while diving, the sea krait has a large lung capacity so that it may stay under for extended periods of time, and glands under its tongue that expel excess salt. The head looks similar to the tail in order to confuse predators and draw them to attack the tail which is less likely to inflict fatal injuries.

On land, the sea krait finds shelter in vegetation, under beach rocks, in caves and crevices. It is in these limestone caves and crevices where they go to lay their eggs; generally a deposit of 1 to 10 eggs. Males come ashore early in the evening and eagerly await the arrival of a female at the high tide waterline. Upon her arrival, several males will wind themselves around the female and escort her to shore. The female can be distinguished as being heavier and around a third longer in body size than the male. A sea krait's average length can range from 3 to 4.5 feet.

Although their venom is the most potent of all snakes, human fatalities are rare because sea snakes are not aggressive, their venom output is small, and their fangs are very short. The longest living sea krait in captivity on record lived to be seven years old.

[1] ARKive: Images of Life on Earth, http://www.arkive.org/banded-sea-krait/laticauda-colubrina/

[2] Britannica Online Encyclopedia, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/530726/sea-snake

Chris' Dive Experiences: A Harbor Seal In Need Of A Hug, La Jolla Cove (Part 2)

Photo Courtesy of Margo Sanchez

After being surprised by the discovery that I had a seal tugging on my fin, I floated there just staring at the curious little guy. The seal again gave my fin a good bite and tug and looked up at me. We stared at each other a couple more seconds and then the seal ascended toward the surface. I motioned to Lesley, asking if she saw what happend. She indicated she had been right next to me and saw the whole thing. We both had a smile on our face as we turned to continue to swim toward shore.

Less than a minute later I felt something grab and pull at me good. I looked up as the seal came down right in front of my mask. Instead of taking off, like they usually do when they are playing, it moved within a foot of me. At this point I was starting to get real excited knowing that this was going to be something really special. Again the seal was staring at me with it’s dark soulful eyes as I just sat there not making any sudden moves, trying not to breathe too much so as not to scare it off. I think he sensed that I wasn’t going to freak out or try and hurt him, so the seal came right to me with it’s fins open as if it wanted a hug. I slowly put my arms around the seal. It just sat there looking up at me and checking out my regulator and mask. This embrace lasted a few more seconds before I felt it easing away, so I let go. The seal turned and slowly ascended to the surface. I then turned to look for Lesley, completely flooding my mask as I smiled from ear to ear! After clearing my mask, I could see that Lesley was hooting and hollering and had a big smile all her own.

We got our bearings and continued on our way into shore when again I felt the seal grabbing and this time biting my hood. As I looked up to find the seal I felt something grabbing my arm. I turned and found the seal swimming side by side with me, holding my arm in between its fins. It held on for a while as I continued to swim before letting go and swimming around, stopping right in front of me. This time it didn’t want a hug, but floated on its side right in front of me. I reached out and started to scratch it’s side. It seemed to really enjoy this. It didn’t take long for the seal to figure this whole thing out and turned to get its belly and neck scratched. This continued for a couple of minutes as it floated in front of me, turning to get it’s back and the top of its head scratched too. After all this the seal turned and looked at me one last time before ascending.

This is one of my favorite diving moments. To think this ranks a close second to diving within arm’s reach of a great white shark, and I didn’t have to pay or sign my life away to do it. Moment like this make me realize the great diving that we have right here at home.

Chris' Dive Experiences: A Harbor Seal In Need Of A Hug, La Jolla Cove (Part 1)

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

Waking up early is never too easy on your day off. And in San Diego, if you want to do a shore dive, you need to set your alarm and get up and out the door, usually while it’s still dark, to get a good parking spot. This Friday was one of those occasions. We arrived at La Jolla Cove just after sunrise, checked the conditions, geared up and started our kick out. On a usual morning kick out at the cove there’s a bevy of action around you that keeps you entertained, including sea lions barking and jumping from the rocks to check you out, squadrons of pelicans skimming the surface of the ocean on their way up and down the coast, to hundreds of cormorants leaving their nests to go out and hunt.

Once Lesley and I tired of kicking, we took a heading on the buoy, descended and started our dive. We knew we were near the buoy as we started to enter the edge of the kelp forest that grows at the Cove. Diving through the kelp today was beautiful with 10 to 15 feet of visibility allowing a lot of sunlight to shine down through the kelp. As we dove in, out, around and through the gently swaying strands of kelp, it reminded me how lucky I was to to be able to enjoy this right where I live, even if I do have to get up early in the morning. When we reached the buoy chain, we stopped and looked up to enjoy the picturesque view of the sunlight flickering through the kelp.  It was then I noticed something big cutting through the kelp toward the buoy chain. It was a giant black sea bass. The black sea bass made a pass right above us, while we remained on the bottom, sitting still and hoping it would turn and come in for a closer look at us. As we waited we noticed another smaller black sea bass swim by us, heading the same way as the first one. After a couple of minutes of sitting and waiting we turned to leave and were startled to see this huge face peeking through a kelp strand right next to us. The larger black sea bass was just sitting there checking us out. Knowing we had spotted him, he then moved along, staying just out of reach before disappearing into the kelp.

Lesley and I continued on, in and out of the edge of the kelp, seeing the loads of life you normally see while diving the Cove. We reached our turnaround time and started the equally long dive back toward the shore. We were diving along, looking in the crevices at lobster, urchin and some abalone, when all of a sudden I felt a strong tug on my fin. I turned expecting Lesley to be behind me, wanting to show me something, but instead found a chunky harbor seal with it’s huge cute eyes staring back at me.

Bigger is Better - Right?

I hear people saying, "This camera is 14 megapixels, so it must be better than my old one because it is only 10 megapixels."  In fact, there is a new camera coming to the market that takes 36 megapixel photographs and I am sure there are some folks that will drop everything to buy this camera just for that big number.  But is megapixel size the best way to choose a camera?

Pixels

To answer that question, you first must understand what a megapixel is.  Digital cameras have a sensor in them that records the light that you allow to hit it.  The sensor is made up of millions of little squares or pixels in a grid.  If you multiply the number of pixels on the horizontal row by the number of pixels in the vertical row you will get the total number of pixels on the sensor.  For example, a 3 MP camera has 2,048 (horizontal) x 1,536 (vertical) pixels for a total of 3,145,728 pixels or 3 MP (mega indicating million).  By contrast, most computer screens only display 1,074 x 768 or 0.8 MP and a 4" x 6" print only requires 640 x 480 or 0.3 MP resolution to look good and 1600 x 1200 or 2 MP for best quality.

So why do the camera manufacturers shout about the MP of their latest, greatest camera so much?  Mostly to get you to buy a new one.  If you remain perfectly content with your current camera, and only replace it when you have tripped the shutter so much that it dies, they would go out of business.  So instead they have found a feature that is relatively easy to upgrade and re-release the camera with minimal improvements other than the size of the sensor.  And they only need to increase the sensor size by 40% to double the number of MPs!

Camera Sensor

Why then would anyone want a camera with 36 MP?  If you believe what I have written so far, then you can buy an old 2 MP camera cheap and be good to go.  That is true.  You would really only want more MPs for two reasons.  One, if you want to make ginormous prints and two, if you plan on doing much editing of your photos.  Every edit you make in your photo editing software actually degrades the photo slightly.  If a photo requires heavy editing you may degrade the pixels so much that it looks like it was shot on a camera with a small sensor.  The best solution for that is to shoot a good quality photo in camera rather than to edit something into a good photo, which is what we strive to teach you in The Dive Shack's Digital Underwater Photography classes.

What should you look for when shopping for a camera?  Sensor quality is much more important than sensor size.  You can find reviews on cameras at http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/ or http://www.popphoto.com/ to name a couple of sites.  Once you have narrowed your choices down based on the reviews and your budget, you want to handle the camera and housing if possible.  Shoot the camera changing the ISO, shutter speed and aperture.  Are the controls easy to change?  Are they within easy reach?  Can you comfortably hold the housing or is it too big/small?  Do you have full manual and creative control of your photos with this camera or does it just allow you to change one of the three major controls?  Talk to photographers who shoot the models you are considering and ask their opinion on the set up.  You can even rent cameras and underwater housings to try them out for a few days before you buy them.  So do your research, and find a camera you love!

Photos courtesy of www.digicamhelp.com

Chris' Dive Experiences: Pelagic Magic & The Manta Dive Kona, Hawaii (Part 2)

Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand

After the Pelagic Magic dive the night before, we were excited to finally do the dive that we had been hearing about for some time, the manta dive. We again met up at the dive shop for a briefing late in the day. We reviewed all the usual boat and dive safety stuff along with some rules for diving with mantas. The rules involved common sense stuff like don’t chase the mantas, but they also stressed not reaching out to touch the mantas. We were shown examples with photos and videos of how the mantas' protective mucus layer on their skin is damaged when they are touched, ridden, or scratched. Damage to this layer in turn causes rashes that take some time to disappear.

People are often mistaken to think that the mantas want to be touched because they come so close to you. What they are actually doing is trying to position themselves above you as your exhaust bubbles are floating up so that your bubbles hit their underside and roll up and off their belly. They enjoy this jacuzzi effect which simulates that sensation of being touched. This information was all new and interesting to me since I had often seen pictures of people touching and riding mantas in different places throughout the world.

At this point we were all ready to head out and get to see mantas for ourselves. The boat ride was very short and it turns out that the manta dive site is right next to the Kona airport. We signed up for two dives which including a daylight dive and then the manta dive. We geared up and descended. Our divemaster showed us the area where we would be later for the manta dive and then he proceeded to lead us on our daylight reef dive.

During our dive he showed us a razor fish who, when is scared and wants to hide, darts headfirst into the sand. We also saw a Hawaiian turkey fish which is endemic to the Hawaiian islands and looks like a miniature lion fish. On our way back to the anchor line toward the end of our dive, we saw two mantas on the edge of the reef.

During our surface interval we were assigned lights and briefed again on the manta dive. Mantas feed on plankton which are attracted to our underwater lights. So with the snorkelers shinning their assigned lights down in a tight area where the divers are, and the divers shinning their lights up where the snorkelers are, you get a super concentrated area of plankton. To further improve the situation for viewing, the divemasters also put two crates full of lights aiming toward the surface in the middle of the area where the divers set.

Finally the sun set and it was time to jump in! As we descended, we headed toward the beam of light that was shinning up from the two crates of lights. All the divers sat in a big circle. There were about 25 to 30 divers from 3 boats making up the circle. Once we settled in our spot, the show didn’t take long to start. It was amazing how much plankton was in the area; so thick you could see it bouncing off your light. And the area above the crates of lights was thick with plankton too.

All the lights from the divers pointing up mixed with the snorkelers' lights pointing down, making it seem like a Las Vegas light show you see on the strip. Only a minute or two passed before the first manta made a pass through the lights, right over the center of the circle, gulping up plankton. Before that manta even got out of sight there were two more back to back passing through the center of the circle and directly toward Lesley and I. They passed so close the first time I ducked my head swearing that they were going to hit me. Next, one came from behind me and right over my head. I could feel the water move right above my head as the manta passed on its way toward the center.

The next thing that happened I think really demonstrates how graceful mantas are. They started following each other and would do complete flips starting all the way from the crates of lights on the bottom and going all the way to the surface just below the snorkelers, upside down like aerobatic stunt planes. It was so cool to watch how graceful and precise they were. They would come within inches of both the divers and snorkelers but never touch them. This show went on for 45 minutes and then it was time to end the dive. I don’t think anybody wanted to leave this underwater show, but we had to.

On a funny note, during this dive Lesley and I both saw a moray eel that was very friendly.

He swam all over the place, checking out the divers and even sat between Lesley’s legs. After the dive, the divemasters let us know that this is the resident eel who always puts on his own show. The divemasters will follow him around and film the divers reacting both favorably and unfavorably to him climbing all over them. In our video we bought of the dive, the eel has his own chapter. It is hilarious to watch all of his shenanigans.

Here's a a nice video of the manta dive by med103:

Chris' Dive Experiences: Pelagic Magic & The Manta Dive Kona, Hawaii (Part 1)

Photo Courtesy of Leslie Alstrand

After a nice short flight from Lindbergh Field, we landed at Kona International Airport paved on top of a large old lava flow with the beautiful Pacific Ocean just below the runway. Kona’s airport is a throwback to how airports used to be and many tropical ones still are. It is open air with roof coverings to provide shade and a place to stay dry during a shower. Stepping out of the airplane onto the stairs instantly relaxes you as you feel the warm sun mixed with the fresh sea breeze and enjoy the view of the contrast between the lava fields and the blue of the Pacific Ocean. On this trip we were doing a dive that is well known and raved about “The Manta Dive” and a dive you hear about off and on but not too many divers do it “Pelagic Magic” dive.

First up would be the Pelagic Magic dive. We met at the shop for the dive briefing in the classroom a couple of hours prior to the trip departure. Lesley and I were being joined by 3 other divers; all of us were from southern California. This was the lengthiest dive briefing we had ever encountered to this point in our diving lives. The briefing included the usual boat safety info, a fish and creature id using both books and a video, but also had very unique briefings on the dive. The way the Pelagic Magic or black water dive is carried out is the boat drives a couple of miles out at sun down and stops when the ocean floor reaches depths of around 2,500 feet. Instead of an anchor the boat deploys a parachute underwater allowing it to drift at a slow smooth rate. Each diver is clipped to his own weighted line that is around 50 feet deep, allowing each diver to move up and down in the water column as he wishes.

After signing some paper work and being assigned some nice big LED lights, it was time to go dive. The boat's motor came to a stop and the deck lights came on as our DM called out that it was time to gear up. As we were finishing readying ourselves, the boat deck was a very busy place with diver rope lines being laid out and a huge parachute being deployed.

We huddled together for one last pre-dive briefing to make sure we were ready and to give us a couple of last minute tips. These included: “if you see a huge white thing toward the front of the boat that’s not moving, don’t have a heart attack it’s the parachute that we’re using”, “if you get freaked out, don’t be embarrassed, this dive isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and it happens all the time”, or “if you get cold, make your way up your line; after your safety stop, we’ll have a warm towel and hot chocolate waiting for you”, and last but not least “please don’t pee in your suits, that seems to attract our resident tiger and oceanic sharks”. "Ready to go?"

Lesley and I were both very excited mixed with a bit of nerves. We stepped up to the swim step one by one and were clipped onto to our rope. Lesley and I would be on one side of the boat and the three other divers on the other side; all spread out allowing us a lot of room to move around and not blind each other with our lights.

I did my giant stride off the boat. Dropping down into the the black abyss, I followed my line to the 50 foot mark. Soon after hitting that mark all the lights from the boat were turned off allowing all of our attention to be focused on what our flash light beams found. Because of the great amount of spacing between Lesley, I and all the other divers, each of us facing outward from the boat's hull, and because we were each at different depths, I only saw a brief flash of light now and then from the other divers. In fact, even though we were on the same side of the boat, I only saw Lesley once during our whole dive. 

While floating in 2,500 feet of water I was amazed bythe amount of life that moved by us during our 68 minute dive. During this dive I spied countless types of jellies and salps. Many of them defied logic as to how something living should look. And how they moved, some even unrolling themseleves from a ball to catch prey and feed, was just fascinating. All of this hapening while they put on a light show on a miniature scale in our light beams while they drifted by me on their hunt for zooplankton.

Toward the end of our dive a large school of Hawaiian reef squid came by using our lights to chase their prey. They seemed to check me out at a distance before disappearing again into the dark.

This dive showed me how vast the ocean is and how much life there is other then sharks in the pelagic zone. Although we didn’t get to see any sharks or a rare pelagic sea horse, we ended up seeing half of the species in the pelagic ID book that we looked at before the dive. This was a very unique dive that I had fun experiencing.

Experience the dive for yourself with this video from Jack's Diving Locker: