Page 586 - Visitor Guides
P. 586

travel                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Socorro








































                                                                                                                                                                                                                        THIS PAGE: Scenes from
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        a dive with Solmar V off
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the rocky islands of the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Revillagigedos Archipelago

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAR LEFT INSET:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Hammerhead shark






                                                                     I was in the middle of the                                                                      critters.
                                                                     encounter photograph-                                                                             During the evening,
                                                                     ing these sleek swimming                                                                        when we all relaxed and
                                                                     machines.                                                                                       showed our day’s work,
                                                                        About this time, the                                                                         I was accused of tel-
                                                                     other divers, who stayed                                                                        eporting to another reef!
                                                                     loyal to their watch, were                                                                      My fellow dive com-
                                                                     rewarded by a large                                                                             panions had no idea
                                                                     school of hammerheads                                                                           octopus, sea stars, sea
                                                                     in the distance! What an                                                                        cucumbers, sponge and
                                                                     awesome experience                                                                              smaller fish could be
                                                                     it was, especially if this                                                                      found on the reef. My
                                                                     was one’s first visit to the   the reef, including the fish! Once the         presentation was also full of turtles, green
                                                                     Revillagigedos.                excitement was over, we swam with              morays, yellow guineafowl puffers, and
       for. Behind these smaller critters I noticed                    On another dive to this      mantas and more sharks on our way              aggressive pairs of damselfish.
       several big silver-tip sharks and a huge       same site, once again with my wide            back in.                                         Another site commonly visited, and
       manta! Realizing my wide angle lens was  angle lens on, we saw more schooling                   Once the novelty of the big animals         well worth the wait if weather is unco-
       of little use for this octopus, I scurried off   hammerheads, but too far to photo-          at the site wore off, I put my 50mm lens       operative, is a place called “The Boiler”.
       to join my companions who had already          graph. A tiger shark however, came a          on and stayed in the 18 meter (60 foot)        Coming within meters of the surface, a
       abandoned their posts. Within seconds,         bit too close, causing everyone to “hug”      range photographing an array of smaller        block-shaped pinnacle causes surface


            32   X-RAY MAG : 18 : 2007    EDITORIAL     FEATURES     TRAVEL     NEWS     EQUIPMENT     BOOKS     SCIENCE & ECOLOGY     EDUCATION     PROFILES     PORTFOLIO     CLASSIFIED
   581   582   583   584   585   586   587   588   589   590   591