Returning to the Sea of Cortes between July 27 and August 2nd was especially exciting for me since it would be the first time I would be diving with my brand new (and scratched thanks to my harness) Sea and Sea RDX-600D housing, YS-01 strobes and T3i digital SLR.
Marine conditions in the Sea of Cortes were almost perfect with flat calm seas. Note that I said almost.
Water temps were 84 degrees at 94 feet, sea were flat calm with little to no current for 5 out of 6 dives and visibility was around 40-50 feet. The only thing missing was the excessive amount of marine life that was present on my March trip. Now don’t get me wrong, there was plenty to gawk at including Panamic Moray Eels, Bulls eye Stingrays, large schools of Barracuda and Yellowtails, Scorpion fish and a turtle but missing were the sheer numbers I remembered from my last trip. The culprit causing all of this undersea drama, or lack thereof, was apparently the dramatic change in water temperature.
As the story goes the Sea of Cortes warms up quickly and when it does the algae and plankton in the water disappear. As the P&A go they take with them the little fish, which take the medium fish and so on and so forth up the line. So while the Sea of Cortes is known for its sea lions, Mobula rays, Whale Sharks and Hammer Heads the month of July isn’t exactly the best month to view all of them. Apparently late September and October is when everything starts going crazy and sadly we were about 2 months early to the party.
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| Hawk Fish by J. Eiche |
Now that being said some quality images of Hawkish, Panamic Moray’s and a Scorpion fish were successfully captured.
This Hawk fish was friendly and seemed to pose for my photo allowing me to almost touch him with my port. The photo was shot at 1/125s, F8 and ISO 100 to ensure the highest caliber of image and a decent depth of field. Some portraits were taken where shadows were added to add some drama but when editing I didn’t feel as if this was the true character of the Hawk fish after he let me come so close to him and seemed to be friendly.
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| Smiling Eel by J. Eiche |
This Moray Eel while hesitant at first warmed up to my presence and came within inches of my port. At one point I grew afraid for my fingers remembering a Discovery channel special where a hungry eel bit off a guy’s thumb so I retreated for a moment. Once I returned though he came back out and posed for me allowing me to capture what appears to be a smile. Shot at 1/200s, F8, ISO 200. The shutter speed was up to ensure there would be little camera shake and I could capture an open mouth if it should occur.
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| Sinister by J. Eiche |
On my trip in March there were Stone Scorpion fish everywhere I looked once I knew what to look for. These masters of disguise are some of the most venomous fish in the ocean and while a few images were captured in March I wanted to get a quality portrait of one on this trip with my new camera set up. After 3 dives I had yet to find one and was growing concerned that my goal of photographing one would be left unfulfilled. Luckily a random dive buddy on the boat spotted one and steered me to him. These fish assume that their camouflage leaves them all but invisible so he allowed me to approach very closely for a photo. As I lined up the picture it was decided that a little monster like this should be made to appear as menacing as possible. So I shot this photo with a dark background (maybe reflecting the fish’s soul) while trying to capture some of the reds on the fish’s scales. This photo was shot at 1/200s, F20 and ISO 200.
On the last dive of the trip my dive buddy Glenn and I were determined to get in the water with the Sea Lions at Land’s End. Despite an apparent strong current Glenn and I talked boat captain Solomon into putting us in for a drift dive that would take us past the Sea Lions and hopefully result in an encounter. Well the drift dive was something more akin to being in an Indy car during a sandstorm and while we did find a perfectly camouflaged stingray and a green sea turtle the Sea Lions never came to play with me on this dive as they did in March. The dive was exhilarating for its speed and beauty with visibility around 50-60 feet up off the hazy sand bottom but offered little to nothing photographically.
In all diving the Sea of Cortes (and Pacific Ocean) was still a great experience and just leaves me chomping at the bit to go back during their peak months of September or October. With the price to travel and stay being relatively inexpensive a trip next summer might be in order.
