As the recipient of the Rolex scholarship, one of the questions I was often asked was “Where in the world do you want to dive the most?” For me, it was hands down the Revillagigedo Archipelago. This group of four islands 230 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas is a site of aggregation and cleaning for some of the most charismatic mega fauna in the world! It lies where the California and Equatorial currents mix which generates a very productive zone, and is an important stepping stone for migratory species. Oceanic mantas, dolphins, and nine species of shark are relatively common occurrences here, and the diving is absolutely incredible. However, the scholarship isn’t just a free-for-all dive where you want program, so I had to find a way to get there that was productive but also allowed me to address some of my other goals for the year.
As of November 2017 the Whole Revillagigedo Archipelago has been protected!
In a serendipitous sequence of events, I found a way to join the Quino El Guardian liveaboard to the archipelago for six days of diving and citizen science. Through these trips, visitors can play a role in assisting guest scientists in research projects, and learn about the work going on in the area. This past week, I joined Mauricio Hoyos from Pelagios Kakunja to do some Manta sampling and shark tagging. This was a great opportunity for me as one of my goals for this year was to increase my scientific diving capabilities with pelagic animals in open water.
Silver Tip Shark at the Boiler
In La Paz, I met up with Mauricio and his partner Pedro, a fisherman and shark expert, at the Pelagios headquarters. We loaded a truck with all of the necessary gear and drove down to Cabo San Lucas to board the boat, where we met fifteen other guests and eight crewmembers. After a detailed safety briefing and a quick overview of the plan for the week, we were underway.
San Benedicto Island
The first stop was San Benedicto Island, where we arrived approximately 48 hours after departing. After a fitful and excited night of sleep, we were ready for our first day of diving. We started at a site called Las Cuevitas where we were immediately greeted by an array of sharks, including white tip, silver tip, and Galapagos sharks. Midway through the dive, I had my first oceanic manta experience that was just as magical and heart swelling as everyone had told me it would be! It was so inspiring to see such a HUGE animal move with such grace and beauty.
One of Mauricio’s thesis students, Carolina Navarro was not able to make the trip, so my job was to help her collect muscle tissue from Giant Mantas to see if changes in stress level could be detected based on diver presence. Prior to the trip, I met with her to learn exactly how to preserve these samples.
Processing a piece of Manta!
It was imperative that they were frozen in liquid nitrogen within five minutes of obtaining them, so I waited in the boat ready to store samples while Mauricio was out grabbing biopsies. As Revillagigedo is an important cleaning and aggregation site for Mantas, it is extremely important to understand these effects as tourism to the area steadily increases. This type of study is becoming more frequent as we learn of the various effects of tourism on the natural behavior of many different species.
Mauricio Ready with his Spear 
A lot of time spent waiting for mantas
Taking ID photos and Laser measurements
Elasmobranchs (Sharks and Rays) have a special place in my heart. They are evolutionarily distinct from all other vertebrates, and this manifests itself in their physiology, genome, behavior and appearance. As you know, I am very interested in genomics, and the applications of eDNA (read my blog ; Seeing the Invisible). So, seizing this opportunity to study mantas in Revillagigedo, I took eDNA samples, and tissue samples from Carolinas Manta biopsies to hopefully conduct a study to understand the dynamics of the populations of the mantas there!
Solitary Hammerhead at Roca Partida
The second day, we went to the legendary site known as the Boiler. Within the first two minutes of this dive, I knew why. We were greeted by a pod of fourteen dolphins, and in following them, we were led to four Giant Mantas. Maintaining buoyancy and proximity to the rest of the divers was challenging while dealing with current, bottomless sites, and trying to keep up with mantas, dolphins or sharks that we so often encountered.
Over the six days of diving, we completed over twenty dives and saw many of the incredible sights for which the Revillagigedo Archipelago is so renown. We had countless close-up interactions with oceanic Giant Mantas, pods of dolphins, and numerous sharks including White Tip, Silvertip, Galapagos, Silky, Hammerhead, and Tiger. Just when we thought we had seen it all, we unexpectedly encountered a GIANT whale shark on our very last dive of the trip. She was even pregnant! It was like the cherry on top of the world’s best sundae.
Dolphins are a lot of fun to dive with
Big Pregnant Whale Shark at El Cañon on San Benedicto Island
With my camera set up from Reef Photo and Video, I was able to capture some incredible moments. I also used my new Paralenz camera quite a bit. Paralenz is awesome, not only because it captures phenomenal videos, but also records temperature and depth data. This is an awesome tool when it comes to ecological monitoring, as it allows for metadata to be taken in real time with high accuracy.
Silky Shark – Carcharhinus falciformis 
Galapagos Shark – Carcharhinus galapagensis 
Silvertip Shark – Carcharhinus albimarginatus 
Hammerhead Shark – Sphyrna lewini
Silvertip Hanging around near the Acoustic reciever at El Cañon on San Benedicto Island
During the trip we visited three of the four islands that make up the archipelago; Socorro, Roca Partida, and San Benedicto. Since 2017, the whole Archipelago has been deemed a Marine Protected Area due to the efforts of many different Mexican NGOs, such as Pelagios Kakunja. Mauricio Hoyos, who I was assisting on this trip, is one of their founders and a world-renowned shark scientist. It was so cool and such an honor to be able to dive and work alongside him.
Acoustic Receivers around each Island of the Archipelago (Figure – Pelagios Kakunja)
A large aspect of getting an area protected comes from understanding just how important it is to the animals living there. Much of the data that has led to the understanding we have of this place has come from the 269 individual sharks that Pelagios has tagged and sampled since 2008. The signals from the tags are picked up by strategically placed acoustic receivers at each island on the archipelago, as well as on other sites in different Nations in an area known as the Eastern Pacific Corridor.
Shark Movement around the Eastern Pacific (Figure – Pelagios Kakunja) 
Detections of Different Sharks at an Acoustic receiver (Can you tell which species move around?) (Figure- Pelagios Kakunja)
The data from these receivers showed that many individuals were moving from island to island. This information was vital to determining that the whole area should be protected, since previously the protected area included only a small distance around each island. This is why it was of utmost importance to tag as many sharks as possible on this citizen science trip. On the nights we weren’t travelling, Pedro would take out the zodiac with some industrial strength line, and chunks of squid to fish for sharks. We managed to measure and take DNA samples from four different sharks, and Mauricio inserted tags in two of their chests. These tags will get location data for these individuals over the next ten years as they travel throughout the Pacific and ping acoustic receivers along their way.
Taking measurement of a Juvenile Galapagos Shark (Photo By: Steve Peletz)
This trip was my first time on a liveaboard, and it was everything I could have asked for. The crew of the Quino are absolutely incredible! Running a trip like this with such a small crew is hard work, which requires all members to participate in all tasks. They did it all, and made the trip an absolute pleasure. Our two divemasters, Luis and Compirri, were experts and knew exactly where to go and what to do to optimize our time underwater!
Luis and Compirri filling tanks 
Vaquero and one of the dive groups ready to go! 
Captain Julio, and Pedro having fun on the Bridge 
Ever and I spent great times on the surface waiting for Mauricio
The Quino El Guardian Liveaboards are owned and managed by Dora Sandoval, an incredible lady who is extremely passionate about promoting marine conservation, science, and education in Mexico. In addition to working frequently with Comunidad y Bioversidad (COBI), an NGO that I worked with in early September, Dora has founded a program called Héroes del Mar. This program focuses on educating youth from fishing communities about the importance of marine conservation by giving them the opportunity to work alongside key members of the field, and exposing them to alternative economic opportunities. As part of the three-year program, the kids earn dive certifications and spend a week aboard the Quino learning hands-on from scientists and eco-tourism operators. Please consider donating! As an advocate of marine science in Mexico, Dora was incredibly supportive of Yann last year, and I could not be more grateful that she allowed another Rolex scholar to join the trip this year!
Best Group!
The Revillagigedo Archipelago is a gem of Mexico, and is the largest marine protected area in North America. It is akin to the Galapagos of Mexico and we are just beginning to understand its importance. Thank you so much to Dora and the crew of Quino for allowing me to join on this incredible adventure.
(Photo By: Steve Peletz)
And like always thank you to Rolex, The Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, and my other sponsors Reef Photo and Video, Nauticam, Light and Motion, Paralenz, Fourth Element, Halcyon and Aqualung for making the diving as pleasant as possible.
