Page 436 - Mexico Diving From the Caribbean to Pacific Isles

San Benedicto Island Dive Sites
T he Boiler - a large pinnacle that reaches
from the depths to within several feet
of the surface. Its small enough to swim
around several times in one dive, but is large town of course but they take centre stage
enough to be a favorite gathering point,
attracting marine life from miles around.
Humpback whales, whale sharks, and tiger
sharks have been spotted here. What makes
this site so magical is the congregation of
very friendly Giant Pacific Mantas. They of-
ten greet divers even before they enter the
water and can swim with you all day. Many
mantas come to be cleaned. They gather
here to be cleaned by the clarion angelfish.
They don’t seem to mind having the divers
present. The bottom is at around 160 feet
so getting your weights right and not be-
ing too heavy is very importantIt is usually
just a matter of a few minutes in the water
before the mantas started to show up. As
they approach, they look you right in the
eye. They often swim from one diver to the
next posing for every photographer along
the way. Mantas are not the only show in
alongside a glittering support cast includ-
ing: schools of hammerhead sharks, dusky
sharks, silky sharks and dolphins. If that is
not enough for you then there could even
be a cameo appearance by other A-listers
such as a whale shark or a humpback whale.
The most highly rated dive site at San Bene-
dicto can be located at the surface by sight-
ing the swell and surf that looks like the sea you are providing a gentle bubble massage.
is boiling. When you see this you know you
have arrived at The Boiler. The Boiler fea-
tures a beautiful pinnacle which rises from
a base of around 50 meters to within 6 or 7
meters from the ocean surface. Most of the
beauty at this site is within 30 meters depth
so there is no need to dive very deep. Cer-
tainly you do not need to go too deep to
experience some unforgettable encounters
with giant Pacific manta rays. Since this is
a cleaning station where hungry Clarion an-
gelfish nibble parasites of the grateful man-
tas’ bodies, you can see many of them gath-
ered here. They seem to almost welcome the
presence of scuba divers, and might swim
very close to come eyeball to eyeball with
you. They also clearly revel in the sensation
of divers’ bubbles rippling up against their
bodies. If they came for the equivalent of a
spa scrub from the Clarion angelfish then
These are not small pacific manta rays. wing-
spans of 5 or 6 meters is not uncommon.
There can be few manta ray experiences in
the world that can rival this region in terms
of the size of the manta rays and the inti-
macy of the encounter. Other marine crea-
tures are also drawn to this cleaning station.