November 12, 2003 - Cabo Marshall, Isabela Island (Dives 14-15)

Dives 14-15: What an amazing site! It must be spectacular when the water is clear, which Antonio says happens during the dry season. We dropped down to 100' upon entering the water (it was cold and dark down there!) and swam out into the blue, looking upward for silhouettes of mantas, schooling hammerheads, mobula rays, and golden rays (we saw all of them). After ten minutes or so, we migrated up the wall until we reached a shallow ledge, where we found the resident school of salemas, a small, silvery fish with stripes running down their bodies. This school is dense. I've never seen anything like it! We all entered the school and swam around, amazed at how densely packed in these fishes were. They parted around us as we moved around, and from above, it was easy to spot divers by looking for the fishless spheres surrounding them. Occasionally, sea lions would dart into the school, leaving a trail of organized panic as the fish parted around them. Mantas and hammerheads occasionally swam by overhead as well. During the second dive, Nancy, Jim and I swam ahead and saw a large manta (it swam right over Jim, but he never saw it. :), a sleeping white-tip reef shark, and lots of other fish. Unfortunately, the water was really murky, so it wasn't as nice of a dive as it could have been.