TWARS (This Week at Reef Seekers) - Aug. 27 - Sept. 3

[Ken Kurtis]

Return from Isla Mujeres, and more (please scroll down for details)​

We made back safe and sound . . . BACK FROM ISLA MUJERES - We had a really nice time on this trip to Isla Mujeres, which is a small island that's slightly north of Cancun (which is also near Cozumel). Hopefully you were able to follow our daily exploits on FaceBook but if not, the short version of this is that we had three days of scuba diving and three days of snorkeling with Whale Sharks, alternating activities day-to-day. Some of the dives, especially the one to the Ultrafreeze wreck, I thought were really good and better than ones we've done in the past. We also had good Whale Shark encounters but not like we've had some years in the past. (Last time we were there was 2016 and we were told the Whale Sharks now aren't as prevalent as they were back then.) Still, the main goal was to put a Whale Shark in everyone's face and that was accomplished on the very first snorkel day. But our best day was the last day, when we had an estimated 15 Whale Sharks in the area, the seas had flattened out a bit, and everyone got to spend quality time with the largest fish in the ocean. As you can see, we ended up with some happy campers:​

WE MAY HAVE DODGED A WEATHER BULLET - We left L.A. just ahead of tropical storm Hilary and we may have had a similar situation in Isla. For our last two days there we were getting some rain here and there, occasionally heavy (but brief), and it turns out that this little weather system has now grown into a bigger one that's now called tropical depression Idalia. It's going to graze the western edge of Cuba and then will build to hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico and will head for Florida, where it's projected to come ashore Wednesday afternoon along the northern edge of Florida's western coast. Yikes!!! HOW ABOUT A PREVIEW WHALE SHARK VIDEO? - I'll be working on the trip report and SmugMug slideshow pictures for the next few days but how about a little teaser in the meantime? Here's the link to a video of the last Whale Shark snorkel we did. It runs about five minutes and has music as well. If you look carefully, you'll see five Whale Sharks throughout the piece, as well as get a glimpse of the boat from where all the diving took place: DIVING WITH THE WHALE SHARKS OF ISLA MUJERES​ LOBSTER SEASON STARTS SOONER - For a number of years now, the season for California lobsters has started on the Saturday preceding the first Wednesday in October (so usually in September) at 6AM on that morning. CADF&W has announced that this year, they're going to open the season 12 hours earlier, now starting at 6PM on the FRIDAY preceding the first Saturday in Octrober. For 2023, this means the season will start at 6PM on Friday, Septrember 29. Here's the pertinent part of their graphic:​ OCTOPUS GARDEN MYSTERY SOLVED - A few months ago, we told you about a mysterious octopus "garden" that researchers discovered clustered around a hydrothermal vent over 10,000 feet deep in the ocean. Researchers now think they know what's going on. You can read more about their conclusions here: THE MYSTERY OF THE DEEP-WATER OCTOPUS GARDEN. And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!! - Ken​