Galapagos Aboard Deep Blue -- Oct 3-10

Below are some photos from my trip aboard Deep Blue in the Galapagos last week. Unfortunately, no whale sharks and the hammerheads, silkies, and Galapagos sharks tended to stay on the "edge" of visibility, making getting good photos difficult.

Here is a link to some other photos from the trip, both underwater and topside

http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=71

Great stuff Doug, really love the garden eels with the turtle, outstanding. ANd the penguins too, that must have been cool.

Too bad about the big boys though, wonder if El Nino is moving in as its the best time of year for that stuff. DId you go to Wolf and Darwin? Thats where the big boys are so...

Haven't heard of the boat you went on so don't know their schedule.

But looks like you got some nice captures anyways...

Was looking forward to seeing photo of your daughter riding a Silky or something....

Thanks, Mike. I went with my wife. Kim (my daughter) was at school -- though she would rather be trying to ride a silky!

Deep Blue is one of the newer live-aboards in the Galapagos. Eric (Cheng) organized the trip. He's been with them multiple times. It's really a great boat and crew.

Yes, we did Wolf and Darwin. Three weeks and two weeks before our trip, none of the Galapagos boats had seen whale sharks. Then the week before our trip they had 19 encounters. Our week, none again. Oh well, that's the problem with wild animals. Even without "Mr. Big", it was still a great trip.

Very nice stuff. I just checked out your gallery and I really like the free swimming morey and the sea lion pups are very cute.

Too bad about the big guys. I've never been to Galapagos but when I do I hope the whale shark gods are pleased with me.

I'd blame Cheng and that silly horny devil hat he wears for scaring off the Whale Sharks..... I think its says Aggressor on it afterall doesn't it

You got some great shots, Doug, despite the absence of big critters. I LOVE the turtle and garden eels! And I'm impressed that you got the penguin shots -- the only times I've seen them they were scooting by so fast I barely had time to do a double take!

Looks like you definitely made the best of the situation!

Good job! I like the turtle the best and the seals at topside gallery. Whast is thas strange fish at pic # 2?

Thanks for sharing!

Ana:

The fish in pic #2 is the red-lipped batfish. We did one dive in Galapagos dedicated soley to finding this fish! By the way, Eric (Cheng) was on the trip with me and I haven't seen any of his photos yet. Hint, Eric !!!

Doug