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Andrea’s Eagle. Our second
day of the expedition began
with two dives at Andrea’s
Eagle, one of my favorite
sites—so named for the osprey hogfish and king angelfish
(fish eagle) nest on the cliffs
overhead. Underwater, this
rocky pinnacle provided an
equal breadth of amazing
wide-angle and macro sub-
jects. Male orangethroat pike-
blennys were displaying for a
mate in the shallows, while a
fine spotted jawfish—its head
71 X-RAY MAG : 56 : 2013
California sea lion Sea of Cortez
(left) just below
the surface at El
Morro, San Pedro
Martir Island; Raft of
California sea lions
(right) reflecting in
the smooth surface of
the water and diver
(below) with playful
California sea lions
at Ravijunco, off San
Pedro Martir Island
ders and abundant
marine life. The
crevices between
the rocks allowed
for plenty of hid-
ing places for the
various inverte-
brates and reef fish,
while anemones,
sponges, hydroids and Strong tidal currents produced by
gorgonians grew on the lunar tides in the Pacific Ocean
the rocks themselves. A can create drift dive conditions
strong current came up and are especially robust during a
for the night dive mak- full moon. These tidal currents also
ing macro photography produce upwelling’s that bring
the size of a baseball—hid all but impossible. nutrients from the depths, which
in a burrow in deeper water. Diving the northern can affect visibility as well as tem-
Large aggregates of blue Sea of Cortez can be a perature. Amongst the various dive
and yellow chromis, Mexican bit of a challenge due sites, over the week of diving, we
to the varied conditions experienced a ten-degree differ-
pulsated above the rocky reef dive to dive, but that is ence in temperatures.
and Cortez angelfish swam also part of the adven-
through forests of pristine ture. Water tempera- San Pedro Martir Island
yellow polyp black coral at ture, visibility and cur- Overnight, the boat moved south
depth. rent can change from from Angel Island to the island of
one site to the next, San Pedro Martir, and we were
El Aquario. After lunch we between successive subsequently serenaded awake by
had two dives at El Aquario, dives and occasionally hundreds of brown booby birds fish-
a site with piles of large boul- during the dive itself. ing for their breakfast.
Brown booby perched on boat
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