Apex predator and enchanted forest

Hello everybody !!

At the begining of September my husband André and I board the Nautilus explorer to make a wonderful cruise

We start from San Diego to Ensinada a Mexican port on the Pacific rim .

The Nautilus is a luxurious liveaboard , everything is think for divers , but especially with the four immerged cages , two of them bringing you at 12 meters depth and with the possibility to stand on the upper deck of the cage without any protection ..wooowww

After a journey from more than 20 hours to Guadalupe Island, the great day as finally arrived, and at 6.30 am I was the first to get into the cage!

I was also the last to leave it three day later, having spent with my husband 24 hours inside the cages during the three days.

And we saw many sharks..

Our third day was illuminate by Chicka a young white shark female of 5 m long who has decided to stay with us for the whole day after having eliminate from the spot all the other sharks!! Thank to Chicka she is very aggressive and photogenic as well.

Between the problems with the trigger of my Nikon D90, the use of the wrong lense at the good moment and so on during two days, my best pictures are her’s

Here’s are some :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189548@N05/s...57622639316202/

Our cruise was a special one, not only we were scheduled to see the great white, but also (unfortunately for them) their favourite meal …

So we spent another something like 18 hours to go to San Benito Island closer to the Mexican rim, home of giant kelp forest and herd of sea lions and other marine mammals.

This was an extraordinary experience.

First the animals are not used to see divers, secondly the decor made by the kelp is simply magnificent and there is sometime sea lions everywhere..

Here are some of the pics I shot, but I’m afraid that they are only a pale reflection of the reality:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189548@N05/s...57622673268726/

A beautiful cruise made in perfect conditions that I can only highly recommend.

Beautiful kelp forest and sealion pictures.

Alex

San Benitos are amazing - you know their nickname is "the bush" for a reason. I would love to dive there someday. I bet it's what the Channel Islands were like in the 70's

Cheers

James

Kelpforest shots are like out from a fairytale - very nice work!

Very beautiful photos Girelle, especially the sealions!

Mike

Sounds like a great experience. The Great Whites must have been special. The sealion and kelp shots include some real beauties. Kudos.

awesome!

Absolutely, very cool pics.

Are there any landbased possibilities at San Benito?

Kees

Thank everybody for your kind words

No duikKees there is none possibilities of land besed to San Benito , there is only fishermen , and to be honest divers seems not to be welcome by them