January 2, 2006: Revillagigedo Archipelago

A D2D New Years 2006: Revillagigedos dive

"Roca Partida"

Diving from the Nautilus Explorer:

• Directions from Tampa: We dove from the Nautilus Explorer - see http://www.nautilusexplorer.com/
• Conditions on the day of my visit: Sunny.
  
  
• Personal Notes: That night we moved to Roca Partida – “split rock”. It is quite the accurate name for the site; it’s barely as big as the Nautilus Explorer and is basically a lava plug with two peaks sticking out of the water. It’s a very challenging site as the bottom (which you shouldn’t get anywhere near) is at 250’, and the site can be subject to surge and strong currents. We had a chevron manta or two visit on the first two dives, and became very familiar with the caves where the resident Whitetip Sharks would sleep. The third dive I did that day saw visits by two chevron mantas and a black manta. None got close enough to touch but many a photo and quite a bit of video footage was taken. Others did a fourth dive, but I was a bit concerned about my achy ear.

Roca Partida
1.5 MB One side of Roca Partida had an abundance of fish life. This video shows the extent to which the jack and other fish schooled in this area.
1.6 MB The Whitetip Reef Sharks had this odd tendency to sleep in piles, like puppies. Here is a video showing a pile. It takes the new guy a couple of tries to get situated ...
1.6 MB While one side had the majority of the fish, the other had sharks, and the occasional manta. Here is a close pass by one manta, probably a Chevron.

Roca Partida
This is a school of Jack - one side of Roca Partida had tons of fish on it. We usually were on the other side though with sharks and mantas.
Whitetips hung close to the wall when they were swimming, but seeing them swimming was rare.
Here's another one. I would say the average length of the Whitetips we saw were six, seven feet at the most.
Here's a shot of several Whitetips sleeping. Unlike other sharks, these guys can stop swimming.
The best way to describe it is like a bunch of puppies sleeping. Except these have sharper teeth.
Straight under me - but way under me, a Chevron Manta with its two resident Remora.
Another passing over me.
Possibly useful as an ID shot.
I like the curve of the wings on this one.
Manta manta manta!
And of course the odd Wahoo. Not quite as mean looking as barracuda.