Day 3 - The Mantas Are EVERYWHERE!

July 16, 2021 - Day three was freaking amazing! We didn't spend much time with the whale sharks. In fact, we only saw about three or four of them, but it did not matter because there were manta rays everywhere.

It was a slow start, and once we got out to the area, the radio chatter was that there were not many whale sharks. When we got to the area, we saw ten plus boats all taking turns with one shark. I am not a fan of that, and we will go off to try to find another shark when we see that happening.

While we were motoring around looking for sharks, we heard reports of manta rays coming in over the radio. We listened for a while and motored over to an area where our captain's buddy told him to look. Sure enough, the mantas were there; at first, we thought it would be one or two, but NOPE! We hit the jackpot; I am guesstimating at least 100 mantas were in the area because they were everywhere; it was magic.

The excitement on the boat was electric. Everyone hurried their gear on, all of us wanting to be in the water. These are the moments you live for - those wild, unpredictable, memorable moments that nature gifts you with sometimes. They are rare and oh-so-special. We took advantage of all our time in the water, hoping to capture something special in our cameras. With as many mantas that we encountered, I have no doubt our friends all left with something fun and unique.

We swam with them all morning, none of us even thinking about trying to find whale sharks. The water was murky and thick with food, and the mantas were feeding up a storm. It was so good. After about two hours of swimming with the mantas, we look over and saw one whale shark swimming towards… of course; behind that shark were at least 12 boats, filled with tourists, all hoping for a chance to swim with it.

That blows my mind. I know that whale sharks are unique, and swimming with them is amazing, but in the water, less than 50 yards away were 20 plus manta rays, and none of the boats were trying to put their guests in with them. I guess I do get it; after all, it is a shark, and sharks are special. But damn, mantas are genuinely magical beings, and it seems a shame that they were not willing to show them what else is unique about the waters surrounding Isla Mujeres. Instead, they all just crowded this poor shark.

We watched the shark passed our boat. After it swam by, I asked our captain to move us, to get us away from all the boats following it. We took off to find quieter waters with more mantas to swim with, which was not hard because they were everywhere. I guess it is good that the other boats did not want to swim with them; it meant more mantas for my buddies and me. HELL YEAH! Tomorrow is our final day in the water, but the forecast shows a lot of rain. We will make the most of it; we are planning to get wet anyway.

Thank you for reading.

Day Two... A Fun Day at Sea!

July 15, 2021 - Day two with the whale sharks was WOW! We had a really good day at sea, and it was much calmer than the previous day. We still haven’t seen the hundred-plus sharks, but it was fun. I am guessing around 15-ish sharks today... The numbers are building. Yesterday the visibility was amazing, with beautiful clear blue water, but we don’t want that. To find the large gathering of sharks, you need murky blue water filled with fish eggs and plankton. That is where the magic happens. 

By the end of the day, we found that water, which was awesome. The water was thick with eggs. That means the sharks will be making a b-line for the area. Tomorrow should be good with a lot of sharks feeding. My prediction is that by Saturday, the whale shark action is going to be EPIC!!! We will see - hopefully, we will have some fun stories to share. 

As I mentioned, we had about 15 different sharks; they were all feeding and slowly swimming around, gulping up gallons and gallons of egg-rich water. I recognized the shark we had on our first day. It was coke bottle feeding, staying in one spot, and was again very tolerant. It is so much fun finding the same sharks out there each day. It means a lot to me, knowing these sharks return to these waters day after day and year after year. It means that the area is still healthy enough for the animals to return, and that is a very good thing.

Ahh, so back to the feeding shark. I love those coke bottling sharks; they are the ones you dream of encountering. They stay in one spot, suck feeding near the surface. They will often spin in a slow circle as they feed. I stopped swimming and just waited patiently nearby for the shark to spin in my direction. If you get too aggressive and swim at them, they will swim off and find another spot where they can continue feeding without feeling threatened. I was rewarded when it turned in my direction and opened its big mouth, allowing me to snap away. My settings were 1/320, f9 ISO 800. Those seemed to work alright for me today. 

Overall it was fun, and I am happy we have two days left. It gets me fired up for whatever tomorrow brings us...

As always, thank you for reading my friends. And for those of you that comment, I do appreciate them, thank you so much for that.

Day One... Whale Shark Adventure Has Begun!

View fullsize

July 14, 2021 - Shit wifi has not allowed me to share as much as I had hoped, and I also have not had much to share. Holbox was a bust for wildlife. I managed to snap a few songbirds and a flying nightjar, but it was crap for flamingos. They were not there yet; only a few were around, not enough for a real shot at photographing them. I saw them, and I got a few photos of them flying by and some proof of life images of them, but that is it. I was disappointed; the spot was nothing like we experienced three years ago. There were so many around, and they were close. But that just means I need to go back and try again.

My perfectly imperfect crew. Love these guys.

Holbox was nice, though, hanging out with some of my best friends, catching up on old times. Sadly I was not 100%, I recently got my vaccination for covid, and I developed a sore throat the following days after and lost my voice. So for two days, I was not able to talk, which was frustrating. Then I got Montezuma's from eating something bad or the water, and I was out for the count for a night. But thankfully, it is all done, and I am rocking now.

I am sure that is more info than you guys wanted, but that is part of the travel life, and sharing is caring. lol

On the 13th, we left Holbox and traveled to Isla Mujeres. We picked up the guests who will join us for the trip, along with a big circus of friendly faces. More friends and family are coming to hang out with us on Isla. Right now, it is around 20 friends and family members that came to Isla to hang out with us that have nothing to do with our whale shark trip. They just wanted to get out of Texas and California and get away - so they are all here, hanging out while we work. I love these crazy peeps.

So back to the whale sharks. Today was day one of four days of our whale sharks and manta rays diving trip. THE conditions were tough! We had rough seas, and the ride was extremely wet. A few of our guests ended up getting sick, sadly, but that happens.

On top of that, we only had one whale shark, which is extremely rare; usually, we see more than 100 plus sharks on our first day. But ok, I am not spoiled, at least the sharks are here. One of the things that didn’t help - last night we had a big storm move through, and the rain pushed a lot of the food down, so the sharks were down low and hard to find.

It was fun though, we made the most of it and spent as much time as possible with one amazingly tolerant shark. We really are just spoiled; after 16 years of running this trip here, seeing only one shark does not happen. We are used to seeing hundreds of sharks every day. But it was a great reminder to me to appreciate what nature offers you… which means, if you see one shark, you have had a great day.

It felt so damn good to be back in the water with them again. After 16 years of running this trip, I still love it. And reports are that the weather is getting better, and the water is supposed to be calming down, so hopefully, we will have more sharks show up for us. After a day like today, it gets me fired up to see what surprises nature has in store for us, because every day is different.

The adventure has begun!

Thank you for reading.

And We are OFF... Mexico Bound!

My ladies not happy travelers that I am popping surprise images.

And we are off! We walked out the door this morning at 6 AM, bleary-eyed and disgustingly tired. Our uber waiting for us to take us to the airport and catch our plane ride to Cancun. We had to fly to Mexico City first, and now we are sitting at the airport in Mexico City, waiting for our connection to Cancun. Travel days are always exhausting, especially when its a long trip. We were up until 2 AM, getting everything ready. A lot of last-minute packing going on; Clothes and dive gear, and all the camera gear we bring. It is a lot… All part of our circus world.

Gabriel taking advantage of the layover.

Long trips are always tough on me emotionally. Thankfully this one is also a mix of family time - the SDM crew is joining me out there for our time in Mexico. Mari, Sophia, and Gabriel are joining me for three weeks, so it will make my time out there nice. But, of course, there will be some added headaches having them with me as well. “Sometimes family is just too much family”, as my son David once said. But still, it will be nice having home with me. Tonite we will be staying at a hotel close to the airport in Cancun to wait for a couple of old friends who will join us for a few days of beachside relaxation and debauchery. They are coming out before our first group arrives for our whale shark expedition off Isla Mujeres, Mexico to have a bit of fun and catch up on good times.

Of course, while we are hanging out and reminiscing I will find windows to take advantage of my time in paradise and go looking for wildlife. I mean, what is the point of coming to a beach paradise in the Yucatan if it isn’t to find exotic animals? Drinking and lying around a beach just does not do it for me, I need to get off the beaten path and see what is crawling or flying around. I do look forward to my before sunrise wake-ups to see what animals are up to. That is what I live for.

I can’t wait!

Of course, we just got the news that our flight is delayed three hours. So… the waiting continues. Until tomorrow night, guys, hopefully, it will be with some new animal pics for you.

Officially our flight is now a three hour delay and the circus animals are making the most of it.

As always, thanks for reading!

Tomorrow a new adventure begins!

Well it is crunch time, getting ready for our summer run down to the Yucatan this month. It is going to be three weeks of going from spot to spot in search of wildlife. Super fired up about getting back out there to look around and see what we find. Summer in the Yucatan is always a great time for finding beautiful animals. Whale sharks are back, crocodile season kicks off, and the birds got their breeding colors going on. 

 I have plans to share the experiences in our blog, like we did for our Baja trips.  I think the only place I will not be able to share daily will be when we visit Xcalak for crocodile diving. The wifi there is a bit challenging because we are far out in the stixs, but other than that, most places have decent wifi, so should be able to update our days nightly.

On our Baja trip sharing stills vs videos allowed me to update the experiences every night. Of course what I learned from doing that was writing, and editing images at the end of long days on and in the water is tough. Some days you are just tired, sun burnt, or just emotionally drained. It is not always sunshine and rainbows, it can be very stressful. Bad seas, wildlife does not show up, or you just feel crappy or lonely from being away from family. But I will make sure to post nightly when wifi allows it. I know I am not forced to do it, but the truth is… I love sharing, I love writing, and I love this wildlife world that we are a part of. 

I also love sharing images. Capturing a nice image is challenging, and so much fun when you are out there. It adds to the experience and helps me to tell better stories.

So once I get out there, be ready for a lot of blogs, because it is three weeks of sharks, manta rays, crocodiles, and birds. Also going to try and finally photograph a loggerhead turtle. Year after year this species has eluded me. I have seen them and have photographed them in the past, but I still have yet to capture an image that I am truly proud of… this is my year to do it!

So it all begins tomorrow… we catch a plane to Cancun and the circus begins after that. Until then, thank you guys for reading and for being a part of this journey.

New Mobula Ray Video

I cut together a video from our recent trip to Baja. We encountered a group of mating mobula rays. This was a massive ball, consisting of tens of thousands mobula rays. Conditions were perfect, the water was flat calm, the sun was out and the sky was a beautiful blue - It was a great day at sea. We easily spotted this ball from a distance, the mobulas were popcorning all over the place. It made for great opportunities to snap some jumping mobula ray images as well. Anyway, without any further ado, I present our video, hope you enjoy.

Storytelling... I Absolutely LOVE IT!

View fullsize

I just finished up my second article for The Journal of Wildlife Photography, which I was thrilled about. My second 3000 plus word article. It is stressful but in a good way. The reason it is stressful is because I want to tell a good story; I am hoping the reader takes something from it and is entertained at the same time. That is always my hope when I write, but you never know. It could be a total lemon, as I am sure I have written many lemons throughout my career. 

View fullsize

Thinking about that got me to looking back at my role as a storyteller. I have been writing and sharing stories for years; on paper, in newsletters, in my journal, and my blog. I began writing in a journal right out of high school, and I started a blog back in 2005 on our old website. Sadly I took down that website to divert the old traffic to our new website, and in doing so, all those years of blogging disappeared. I am sure if I wanted to, I could find them floating in cyberspace, drifting endlessly among millions of other web pages. All of them lost with nowhere to go.

Thankfully, I still have those pages and writings saved on a hard drive, so they are there for me whenever I want to look back to read my thoughts from those long-lost days.

I do enjoy writing; I enjoy the art of getting lost in a story, or taking a reader on a journey. Sharing ideas and worlds and moments, I love that about writing. As a kid, all my favorite books were from writers who would take me with them to farway places; exotic lands, exotic animals, exotic people. I wanted to be there, I wanted to see that animal, to breathe in the air, to feel the wind. Those escapes are what helped to turn me into the person I am today. 

I do hope that when you read my blogs and stories, you feel the same way - That I have taken you on a journey. I know not all my stories have because sometimes they are just rants that I need to get off my mind. But hopefully, more often than not, I take you on a ride, somewhere… anywhere.

Thanks for reading.

The World MUST Continue to open up... Wildlife Depends on it!

View fullsize

I was going through images from the 2019 season, and I was blown away by all the places we got to visit that year. I forgot how busy our schedule was, especially after what happened in 2020. In 2020, I was so busy feeling sorry for ourselves (for lack of a better word), trying to understand the new normal, that I quickly forgot about what 2019 was like for us. All the wildlife we experienced, all the places we visited, all the magic and the people. It indeed was one of the best seasons we have ever experienced.

View fullsize

View fullsize

I am grateful that we finally see some light in 2021, and there is hope that the world will return to some normalcy again. It needs to because there is so much beauty out there, and it needs to be experienced. Wildlife needs our kind because without tourism and people fighting to protect them and wanting to see them (in the wild), all that will be left are the hunters and gatherers trying to kill or capture them all. When I think of all the wild places left unprotected last year because of covid, it truly breaks my heart. How many animals died because no one was there to watch over them.

I know I sound extreme, but sadly it has come down to that. It is no longer nature that decides what species lives or dies. It is 100% left up to men in suits. They determine what species will be allowed to continue living, what species can be hunted, what species can be harvested. And their decisions are based on how much money can be made (for themselves) by allowing this to happen. It is happening all over the world, and there is no end in sight. 

And what is worse is that the illegal trade of these animals is happening at the same time. Poachers and trappers are out there now, catching and killing everything they can get their hands on. So we have politicians deciding the fate of our wildlife (legally- most of the time) and poachers out in the world doing the same thing (illegally). 

View fullsize

So wildlife tourism must go on; it has to continue. Because without it, these officials will find another way to make money off of our beloved wildlife. And left unguarded, poachers will continue to slaughter and cage up the rest of them. Wildlife tourism helps fund our politicians and slows down the poachers. 

Sorry for such a dark blog this morning. This is part of the journey that I am on, this is what I think about, and it is an essential reminder that the world needs to open up and we need to continue traveling. We need our researchers back out there, our game wardens, and our tourists to continue being a voice for the voiceless. Wildlife needs all of us. 

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

The Final Two Days at Sea!

May 29, 2021 - What an exhausting, amazing, and surprising trip this was for our guests and me. No words to express how grateful I am for having the privilege of bringing people out into nature and showing them the beauty of the natural world.

This trip was not perfect, but it was a great trip. The O’s sadly never arrived for us. They were always a bit too far, showing up in other areas that were many miles away. However, the ocean did provide an abundance of wildlife for us to enjoy, and if you were only here for the O’s, then you are missing the forest for the trees.

The Sea of Cortez is a magical place - we encountered three different species of whales, including the biggest of them all, the blue whale. Along with two species of dolphins, tens of thousands of Mobula rays, baitballs, sea lions - it was so much fun. The ocean just kept surprising us and bringing us gifts.

On our final two days in the water, we spent an hour with a friendly pair of juvenile humpback whales. One of them was breaching over and over again. It would breach, then flipper slap the surface, right next to our boat. We stayed with them for about an hour and left them to try and find the O’s. Reports came back that they kept playing for over three hours after we left. Insane.

Breaching right next to our boat, I did not have the right lens.

We also encountered a super pod of coastal bottlenose dolphins. We got to jump in and play with this pod as they swam around us, some of them coming in close to see what we were. It was a lot of fun. After we were done with our time in the water, we watched them breaching and jumping in our boat’s wake—many opportunities for stills and video. What was unique about these dolphins was their size and color. They are massive dolphins, and their skin is a charcoal grey, and when the sun touches them, they look black—such beautiful dolphins.

View fullsize

On our final day, we had flat calm seas and found a mating group of mobulas. Easily over ten thousand mobulas were in this mating ball, and it was a sight to see.

They kept popcorning all around - even when we were in the water, a fantastic way to end the trip.

THE FOLLOWING DAY…

I dropped off Mark, Parag, and Boud at the airport, said goodbye, and then dropped off our trusty steed Alice at the rental shop. Garin, Sara, and I went to Cabo to jump on an afternoon session with my buddy Jacob and Cabo Shark Tours to try and find some sharks.

The conditions were horrible, absolutely horrible. When we jumped in the water, we spent most of our time chasing the boat being pushed by the wind in giant swells. It was worth it; we ended up swimming with four silky sharks, including one that was heavy with pilot fish.

Finally, I asked Jacobo to untie the baitbox from the boat and let it float free. We no longer had the swells pushing us around and the ocean, despite the rising swells was nice and calm. It was nice!

After that, the silkies were a bit shy but still stayed around. We also had a small school of young mahi-mahi hanging around - behind them, a seawolf came in. A huge marlin swam by us. It was magic and a hell of a great way to end this epic two weeks here off Baja.

Mahi-mahis.

A huge thanks to our friends who joined us these past two weeks - and to my buddies who helped me out in Baja during our time at sea. Thank you for sharing this adventure with me - these amazing experiences are forever engrained in my soul. Until the next one!!!

Day 3 - A BIG Surprise!!!

View fullsize

humpback whale fluke.

Day three of our trip was another good day. No O's yet, but we had humpbacks, Mobula rays, sea lions, and a massive surprise at the end of the day… BLUE WHALES! We were already headed in at the end of the day when we saw them, so we did not get to spend much time with them. But it is thrilling knowing this mega-whale is here.

So on the trip, we have now seen the two biggest mammals on the planet - The finback whale and the blue whale. We would love to spend more time with them, and hopefully, before the trip ends, we will get that chance. What an adventure this week has been so far, and I got some better images of the blue footed boobie. I still need to visit Galapagos for in-your-face shots, but happy with getting a few more shots of them.

We still have two days left, and we are all still fired up for unforgettable days at sea.

Blue whale

I'm going to keep this one short… writing this blog at 10:45 pm, and I need to get some sleep ASAP. We have 6 am wake-ups in the morning and full days at sea and late nights of writing have been kicking my ass, but I do enjoy sharing these updates with you all. I hope you all do as well.

Big bull sea lion swimming by me… growling at me as he swam by.

Thank you guys for reading, tomorrow night - another report from our Baja adventure.