GREAT WHITE SHARKS OF GUADALUPE MEXICO
SEPTEMBER 19 - 24 2006 ~ NAUTILUS EXPLORER
Escorted by: Cindi LaRaia
We are very excited to bring you the new and exciting news!! We are moving forward with our plans to switch our 2006 Great white trips to fly-in trips ... this is subject to confirmation of final approvals by Mexican officials. Trip pricing includes the coach transfer from San Diego to Ensenada, flight from Guadalupe to Tijuana and coach transfer from Tijuana to San Diego.
Stateroom berths: USD2550pp dbl occ, or Executive Suite berths: USD2950pp dbl occ.
Pricing includes all taxes except for a USD65pp port fee, payable when guests are onboard.
 Day 1 - September 19th
6:00pm - Coach boarding in San Diego for transfer to Ensenada. Board the vessel that evening for overnight transit to Guadalupe Island
Day 2 - September 20th
Day at sea, evening arrival at Guadalupe Island
Days 3 - 5
Full dive days. 4 or 5 cages in the water. 4 x (3) person cages with 2 of them trailing off the side of the boat from booms. We experimented with booms this year and guests got some really cool images of shark/cage interaction. We are going to do our darndest to drop a 5th cage down 20 feet off the back but that is still experimental.
Day 6 - September 24th
Limited morning dives and then steam to local fishing village for transfers to aircraft.
2:00pm departure by chartered turboprop aircraft to ENSENADA. Then coach transfer back to San Diego ETA 5:00pm.
Cages will measure 9' long and designed for 3 divers max. The "bars" of the cage will be simple with 2 levels of wraparound camera ports -- allowing divers to shoot either standing up or kneeling on the bottom of the cage. The dive deck will be open from 0630 until 1800 with 1 hour rotations enforced (when the cages are busy).
From Captain Mikes Log:
Our great white shark trips present an opportunity for anyone, divers and non-divers alike, to likely get closer than they ever imagined to these magnificent apex predators. The Nautilus was custom built for just this sort of adventure and we had a very comfortable ride on the way down. The experience was incredible and vastly exceeded our expectations.
 We anticipated that the shark wranglers would make long slicks of blood and chum and that a white shark might show up every couple of hours to bash against the cages before taking off again. Instead, a constant stream of animals showed up as soon as the first cage went in the water at 6:30 a.m. and continued until sunset.
Sometimes we had 2 or 3 sharks off the back of the boat at one time and the longest that we went without seeing any sharks was 15 - 20 minutes. While they didn't bash the cages other than the occasional accidental "tail hit", these really, REALLY big animals often examined our divers from extremely close up which can definitely be a heart pounding, adrenalin rush experience!
We found that it took very little scent and bait to bring the sharks in and some individuals hung out with us for 2 hours or longer. The photography opportunities were amazing This diving is simply too extraordinary to pass up and we will be offering our own scheduled great white shark trips starting in September 2006. We will be using surface supplied air (hookah) rather than scuba which means you do not have to be an experienced scuba diver to get in the water with the sharks!
 Our cages will be large and uncrowded and very well suited for photography. Guests will be accomodated in (4) cages, each one 9' long and very comfortable for (3) divers. Each cage will have wraparound bilevel viewing ports set up so that photographers can have the most unobstructed view possible (without corner posts) while either standing up or kneeling on the bottom of the cage. (2) of the cages will float behind the Nautilus.
The other (2) cages will trail from a boom on each side of the ship offering a 360view of the shark action as well as the occasional startling moment when a great white appears from behind! We are hoping to work with the local islanders (pangeros) to offer tours on shore, tuna fishing and maybe even trailing a cage from one of their pangas to provide exciting drift diving along the shoreline.
Potential guests should remember that while our past white shark sightings have been excellent and continuous all day long, these are wild animals and there is no guarantee that all future trips will have the same number of sightings.
Message from Captain Mike:
"I am becoming more and more of a rabid conservationist in my old age and I think there is enough money in these trips to effect some change for the good on Isla Guadalupe. This island, much like it's "sister islands" of Malpelo, Cocos, Galapagos, Clipperton and Revillagigedo's are paying a heavy price for the sailors who have been landing on them for hundreds of years and leaving sheep, goats, rats, mice, cats, white bunny rabbits, swarms of locusts and other non-indigenous creatures behind. These animals play heck with the local ecology and have been responsible for the extinction of a number of endemic species.
 A survey in 2000 by the San Diego Museum of Natural History estimated the population of goats on Guadalupe Island at 100,000 with only 5- 10 years left before a lot of the local ecosystem could be extinct. A huge and expensive goat eradication program followed and reduced the population to a couple of hundred animals.
I am working closely with an American foundation and hope to set up an independently administered conservation fund that will match us dollar for dollar if we can raise 50K or more. The money will go towards stuff like building a school for the kids on the island and stocking it with books and allocating funds for eradication programs. One of my biggest fears is that a well equipped and motivated sportfishing boat could wipe out the white shark population within a week or two -- especially given that the jaw of a great white is worth USD5 - 10K. I believe that it is critical to involve the local pangeros and make sure that they get some benefit from the great white shark diving if these animals are going to be protected and saved. Every berth sold on our trips is a positive financial contribution towards these goals."
Contact Cindi at Request Info
to reserve your spot!
For more information
Contact:
Dive Discovery
@
1 800 886-7321
ph- 415-444-5100
or
Request Info
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