four mantas, and they were all eager to play. My
new friend, Klaus, from Germany, was releasing air
from his spare cylinder, and a manta came directly
overhead to play in the bubbles as Klaus swam along
the periphery of The Boiler, slowly kicking on his
back with the manta just two feet above him. For
50 minutes it was all mantas all the time; it was so
productive I decided to sit out the next dive at The
Boiler and go look for a cooperative whale again.
In retrospect that was a bad call because the group
enjoyed epic interactions with five different mantas that
time, while I got skunked in whale world. Although we
saw several different whales, they sounded when we
got even remotely near. I jumped into the water a few
times, but we were never even rewarded with a sighting,
let alone a photo op. But it was a privilege to be out on
such a beautifully warm and calm day, just me and the
dinghy driver in pursuit of a whale encounter.
In the late afternoon light I went scouting for whales
one last time, even though we hadn’t seen a spout for a
while. After all, there were still corners to turn and new
bays to examine. I
remained ever hopeful
that one mythic “player”
would be waiting. We
saw no whales that day,
but we did come across a
school of at least 20 mantas
near the surface, their wings
often breaking the water. To
see so many from the inflatable
meant many, many more were
lower in the water column and invisible to us.
Seeing these mantas reminded me about the
Mexican Navy frigates that patrol these waters and
the radar installation on Socorro that would alert the
Navy of any unauthorized vessels here to exploit the
islands’ marine life. Our time as guests among these
islands was magical and a testament to the Mexican
government and their vision to create and enforce
this conservation biosphere. The whales, mantas and
sharks say gracias, and so do we.
AD
|
75
Clarion angelfish swim from the
refuge of the reef to clean para-
sites from the mantas in a symbi-
otic relationship.
Opposite: Octopuses are
unusually common, with
multiple encounters on
most dives.
