Galapagos and Filters?

Have an upcoming trip to the Galapagos. Planning on "low viz" and hopefully large subjects like schools of hammer heads and the occasional whale shark. In general for these shots strobes are useless so wondering about the use of filters, Magic or otherwise??? Assuming that often it will be overcast, low light, and shooting Up at the surface. Is it worth trying? Or just go without? Any advice, strategies or input on shooting these subjects in this region welcome. I am shooting a Nikon D200 debating taking my Nikon 17-55mm or Sigma 17-70mm of course the Tokina 10-17 is going, if conditions and proximity allow it.

As much as I am a fan (and a big one at that) of the magic filter, i would abstain from using one in these conditions on account of the following:

The D200 is lame beyond 400 ISO, (I have two of thoses camera, so it's not a unfounded comment)

The condition are as you state fairly overcast, this will lower your potential amount of working light, making either decent aperture or shutter speed difficult to attain with low ISO (see above comment) when using such a dense filter

And most likely you will be working in backlit situation, basically shooting from under the animal which, as it happen, is not very colorful to begins with, so no gain in color in these situation.

Still if you can get eye to eye with a whale shark on a sunny an into a not so deep a situation, then by all mean if you have it use it.

I use the magic filter for wreck shooting from above and reef life in shallow condition with great results, especially in sunny situation, cloudy and overcast condition usually tends to give me colors that are too pastel for my taste

Cheers and enjoy the sharks while they are still around!

I concur with Jean.

I've been to the Galapagos 3 times. You never know what you are going to get. Trip 1 was "normal". Trip 2 had awesome vis, warmer water and 1 whalehark. Trip 3 had rough, cold water, poor vis and 29 whalehark sightings. I took some magic filters on Trip 3. The results were poor when I used them. A high percentage of shots were useless, although it is possible to end up with a couple of shots greatly improved by using the filters.

BTW, using strobes is more beneficial than you may think.

Thanks for the input, about what I thought. We did book back to back trips so I might bring the filters just in case the planets a-line. Anyone shoot the Tokina 10-17mm there? Or equivalent? Still debating between the Nikon F2.8 17-55 or the Sigma F2.8-4.5 17-70mm (HSM). Will have the Subtronic Nova strobes, just hope the battery packs keep working, ugh. Have had problems with the cable running from the battery to the strobe developing a short on the last two trips both have had to go back to Germany. Then the joy of a 12-14wk turn around to repair. Love the strobes but definitely a design flaw with the battery.