San Marcos Island
Today we started the last trip of this Baja season. Very early in the morning we visited San Marcos Island, a mid-size island in the central Gulf of California and host to one of the most important mines in the region.
On the northeast side of the island we did our first dive. The visibility was very low, but we were able to see numerous groups of king angelfishes eating in the water column, and several cortez angelfishes that were attracted by our underwater cameras, trying to monopolize the subjects of our pictures. On the way back, more than one hundred long-beaked common dolphins guided us to the Sea Voyager - but the most amazing show was the fin whales that were eating around the ship for more than an hour.
After lunch, everybody ran to take a place on the bow, to be astonished every time the whales broke the surface and expelled an immense torrent of water before taking another breath. We wanted to dive one more time, so the nice crew of the ship took us to the southern part of Tortuga Island, a volcanic island just few kilometers northeast from San Marcos. The water was warmer and the visibility was better; however, we discovered that the entire seascape was dominated by a great number of brown sea urchins. In this season, that part of the island used to be covered by Sargasso beds, but the intense grazing of sea urchins has diminished them. These urchins don’t have predators to control their populations. Back aboard the Sea Voyager we were served an excellent dinner that gave us more energy for tomorrow’s adventures.
Today we started the last trip of this Baja season. Very early in the morning we visited San Marcos Island, a mid-size island in the central Gulf of California and host to one of the most important mines in the region.
On the northeast side of the island we did our first dive. The visibility was very low, but we were able to see numerous groups of king angelfishes eating in the water column, and several cortez angelfishes that were attracted by our underwater cameras, trying to monopolize the subjects of our pictures. On the way back, more than one hundred long-beaked common dolphins guided us to the Sea Voyager - but the most amazing show was the fin whales that were eating around the ship for more than an hour.
After lunch, everybody ran to take a place on the bow, to be astonished every time the whales broke the surface and expelled an immense torrent of water before taking another breath. We wanted to dive one more time, so the nice crew of the ship took us to the southern part of Tortuga Island, a volcanic island just few kilometers northeast from San Marcos. The water was warmer and the visibility was better; however, we discovered that the entire seascape was dominated by a great number of brown sea urchins. In this season, that part of the island used to be covered by Sargasso beds, but the intense grazing of sea urchins has diminished them. These urchins don’t have predators to control their populations. Back aboard the Sea Voyager we were served an excellent dinner that gave us more energy for tomorrow’s adventures.
