Sea of Cortez-when, where, what

[buff]

My wife is interested in the Sea of Cortez. I said I would hop on the scuba board and get all the answers.....so here are the questions:
1. She wants to see whales. I said it's hard and rare to get close to them. So, where and when in the Sea of Cortez is the best time and place to see whales.
2. What is the best time to dive the Sea of Cortez with respect to visibility, weather, and marine life in general.
3. I live in Minneapolis, where is the best place to fly into to dive the Sea of Cortez? I would suspect Cabo San Lucas-but is that area really busy?? Is the marine life around Cabo, protected like it is in Cozumel?
4. I have been to Cozumel many times and love it. I have been to Bonaire and loved that too. Where would you recommend me to dive next in the world?-Someplace warm for my wife please.

Thanks Gang!

Mike

 

[kelpmermaid]

I've only been there once - and dove out of La Paz. It was July, and the weather was hot (like Phoenix at that time), but not bad on the water, really. We did a long weekend series of day trips - the rides are long, but not something we found to be problematic. Visibility was some of the best I've ever seen - 80 ft +.
Weather and conditions are highly variable there, depending on time of year. There is diving out of Cabo, but that isn't the best of Baja diving from what I hear.

 

[Ladydiver]

Buff,

Check out some of these resources for Diving in the Sea of Cortez.

 

[Fishkiller]

I know of the Sea of Cortez and San Carlos near the airport in Guymas has a couple of liveaboards that in their propaganda offer whale watching.

Any shop in San Carlos can tell you the best times

 

[donooo]

I lived down there for 5 years, but didn't dive. I think there would be three versions if I were going down to dive now.

1) Fly into Loreto during the late spring and dive in the islands out front.
2) Fly into La Paz, rent a car and do the 200 mile loop. Dive out of La Paz, Los Barriles/Buena Vista, Cabo Pulmo and Cabo San Lucas. Including a trip out to Gordo Bank. Return to La Paz.
3) Do the SOLMAR liveaboard out to the islands ( un-pronouncable/un-spellable) and see the "big things".

The water can be HOT in August-October and you run into the Hurricane / runoff problem. My vote is April - June. Not a problem in the world.

Buenas suerte, adios don O

 

[Centroides]

donooo has some good advice. I would add that the best, clearest, and warmest water is from July through November.


Loreto is sweet because it is now a marine park. All the bottom dragging shrimp trawlers are excluded from the bay now and the benthic communities are starting to recover. The manager of the national park is a really good guy named Benito - super intelligent, and a diver who can give you some help. The Nature Conservancy has been working with them to manage the park. Send them a contribution.

I've seen Blue whales in the bay with their babies. You can't get close to them but they are awesome to see even from a distance.

You can see Gray Whales up close and personal in Magdalena bay on the pacific side but they are there when the gulf side water is most turbid and cold. You can even touch the baby whales when they come up to the side of the boat. Almost religeous. The best time to see them is in Feb or March. Dress warmly. Diving is possible on the gulf side but it's 7mm water (or dry suit) and the vis is not great because of plankton blooms that are common then.

Cabo Pulmo is a relatively small reef (couple of thousand acres) on the south eastern cape of the Baja peninsula but is the most northern reef in the eastern Pacific. Some interesting stuff there.

Whale sharks are best seen in June, July and August full moons.

There is a newly sunk shipwreck in La Paz bay in about 60 ft of water. It's starting to crust up nicely.

I think the best outfitter in Baja is Baja Expeditions. They have a website but I can't remember the link. If you just search on Yahoo for Baja Expeditions you'll find it. They can set you up for day trips, live aboard, sea kayaking, and whale watching. The owner is a character named Tim Means who is a former Grand Canyon boatman and has been living in La Paz forever. He has impecable ethics and spends all his time and money trying to conserve what's left of Baja.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

We went to La Paz in August 2000. A hurricane had been near the area a couple of weeks (?) before we went and the visibility was awful. The employees at Hotel Cantamar and the dive service they operate said that was the first time they'd ever seen "green" water in August. They said the sea is fairly shallow and any hurricane generated waves anywhere near the area stirs up the visibility. Our average vis. for the week was 30' horizontally! You would have missed a whole pod of whale sharks! My buddy and I did get to spend 4 minutes of a dive with a large Manta Ray at a cleaning station--INCREDIBLE! Have photos to prove it but the vis was bad enough proof is all they're good for ;-0 . No one else on the boat got to dive with any Manta Rays the whole trip (did see some flipping out of the water) so that made the event extra special. The seal colony at Los Islotes is cool, some of the pups would come up and tug on your fins or try to eat your camera or video camera (visualize the scene through your video lens--approaching seal, close-up of nose, teeth and tonsils, black!) Think that one was trying to nurse! If you like starfish though, we saw ALL KINDS, never saw so many starfish in my life! Saw several octopus each dive, out on the reef in the daylight. I wonder if Centroides is speaking of the Fang Ming sunk in November 1999, plan this dive for 80 feet if you want to go all the way to the bottom to see the anchor, our DM told us max depth was 70 feet---NOT! A light would be nice to see what's living inside the wreck but you don't have to have one, there are lots of large square openings on the sides so you have plenty of ambient light.

All in all, enjoyed the trip, the employees are great and if the water had been the way it usually is (blue, not green) the diving would have been incredible too.

BTW we flew into La Paz and had a 30 minute ride to our hotel along, shall we say, an "interesting" piece of highway at top speed and often in the wrong lane. (Whatever you do don't open your eyes!)

Ber

 

[Dora the Explorer]

Hi Mike,

We have a liveaboard in the Northern Part of the Sea of Cortez. The midriff islands
Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard - eat, sleep & dive.... The boat is one year old and very nice. Each cabin
is spacious and has it's own bathroom. We saw whales the from July to November, but
especially after September. We saw huge pods of sperm whales, pilot whales and grey whales.
It's amazing to be in there presence. We got to swim with whale sharks in starting September.
The scuba diving is great. The sea of Cortez is seasonal. July to September is hot. Water temps
are in mid to high 80's. It starts to cool down begining Oct to low 80's, getting cooler end of Oct to high 70's, and low to mid 70's in November.
The boat is in Puerto Peñasco. The easiest way to get to us is to fly into Phoenix. Their is a shuttle that brings you directly to the boat. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Phoenix to Puerto Penasco. Expect to have a wonderful time. We will take very good care of you

 

[pinkladydi]

I used to live in Phx and I have dove Rocky Point ( Puerto Penasco)many times, I have even dove off of the "new liveaboard' (Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard) when it was under different ownership. ( I never thought of that area as a destination that should cost more $$$ than Cozumel )
I have also dove Cabo & La Paz, these 3 areas are abundant in sea life, the dive operator I used in Cabo was the worst,( hopefully they are out of business).
OOPS I forgot to mention Guymas ( San Carlos), day boats are great, my dive buddy did a live aboard there & it was a nitemare, I was on the "El Duke" & it was like camping on a boat.
In all these places I'd recomend a day trip not a live aboard.
I have heard great reviews about the SOLOMAR live aboard , and it goes to places that day boats can't get to, that would be a choice I would spend my hard earned $$ on.
Costa Rica was great with a lot of BIG stuff, stay at Ocotal.
However I chose to move to Manzanillo and it is my dive destination of affordable choice, here is a report on 2 beach dives,written by a seasoned diver from Cal. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/314575-dive-manzanillo-colima-mexico.html#post4893973
We do boat dives when we have 4 or more divers and the whales usually show up in Dec.
There are many exotic destinations many of which are hyped by paid advertising, so do you research, go on Facebook & other places & ask for recomendations, then converse with those people, ask the hard questions!
a lot of boats profess to take you to the whales, but it isn't a certainty just like turtles it's all an educated guess. So pick a destination that offers other sights that you would enjoy and let nature prevail.
Live aboards are great in calm seas but if the weather gets RUFF, then you may be feeding the fish your previous meal. YUCK!!
, I hvae done both day trips & live aboards & I'd suggest that you look into a trip that includes both, a few days onboard & a few on land, that would give you the best of both and next time you'll have an expierience that will help you determine which you like better

 

[Dora the Explorer]

Pinklady,
Good morning, I think you are mistaken. I remember all my clients. The "new liveaboard" Rocio Del Mar did her first trip inJune 2009. It has never changed owners. We built her and are the only one's that have taken her out. You may have been on another boat. The Sea of Cortez is an amazing destination.
We start at Angel Island and continue south to the midriff islands (sal si puedes, las animas,
san lorenzo and san esteban) These are incredible dive sites that are difficult to get to, other
than a liveaboard. This year we saw a huge amount of whales (sperm whales, grey whales and pilot whales. We also saw flying mantas (mobulas) on many occasions. On most dives we
saw turtles, all types of rays, eels, etc.... I could go on and on. I hope you can come with us
sometime. Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard - eat, sleep & dive....