Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
ature remains warm enough for them throughout the winter. A few
months later it would have been, as they say, Shark City around Ali-
jos Rocks, and our dive would have been a lot more exciting. Never-
theless, I noticed that none of us was complaining.
With the fish collection accomplished and the specimens preserved
in formalin, we were eager to get to the live fish at the Revillagigedos.
First we had to refuel and top o¤ the boat's freshwater tanks at Cabo
San Lucas, but soon enough we were on our way—a 225-mile, twenty-
five-hour run due south. The weather was good, and it was a comfortable
ride downhill with the prevailing northwest swells on our tail.
The first island we came to was San Benedicto. This small, uninhabited,
and recently active volcanic island was completely covered in ash and
lava, a massive eruption in 1952 having wiped out all visible life. Since
then very little vegetation had managed to gain even a precarious foothold
on the barren lava. The water surrounding this northernmost of the Re-
villagigedo Islands was home to giant manta rays (
Manta brevirostris
),
which later observations indicated might be permanent residents. This
is also where a world-record yellowfin tuna (
Thunnus albacares
) was taken
in 1977—a giant powerhouse weighing 388 pounds.
We made one dive here, but it wasn't good terrain for collecting the
kind of fish we were after. Piles of giant volcanic boulders allowed them
too many escape routes from our hand nets.
We continued on to our primary destination, Isla Socorro. Although
it, too, was volcanically active, it had not erupted in many years; still,
wisps of smoke or steam could be seen coming from the island top.
The skipper dropped the hook in about thirty feet of water in a lovely,
protected cove. Eager to see what we might catch here, we fished over
the side of the boat, and our baited hooks were immediately attacked
by a horde of beautiful crosshatch triggerfish (
Xantichthys mento
) that
acted like starving piranhas. Their tiny mouths and sharp teeth stripped
our hooks clean of bait in seconds.
We jumped in the water and snorkeled around, amazed to see dozens
of the “rare” Clarion angelfish. We also spotted a few small Galápagos
sharks, two to three feet long, and an occasional small silvertip shark
(
Carcharhinus albimarginatus
). After checking us out, they swam on
about their business. That made us feel a little less nervous about our
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