NEWS AND UPDATES

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The Manta staff are very excited to be hosting a Project Aware Underwater cleanup! This will be a fun afternoon of two dives on the other side of the Bay from the Cabo San Lucas Marine Park. Not only will we collect rubbish, but we will be checking out 2 new sites that no-one dives.

Manta is offering this afternoon for half of our regular $85 price for a two tank trip, this includes a drawing for one PADI Digital Underwater Photography specialty course for one lucky diver. We will be drawing for the prize at the shop after the dives, Manta will be providing snacks and refreshments.

So contact us today to plan for some unique dives and to help us care for the environment!

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GORDO BANKS IS ON!! - HAMMERHEADS on the dives Februrary 23 - Plus Shark Conservation!

We had a report of calm seas, blue water and hammerheads and decided to check it out! Happily our divers found good visability... and some hammerhead sharks among hundreds of yellow fin tuna and thousands of jacks and other pelagic fish.

Manta has begun to collect signatures in the center to support tougher legislation for shark protection from over fishing. This is a issue close to home for us as the highlight of any dive at Gordo Banks is seeing the schooling hammerheads, one of the species identified by the IUCN as under threat of extinction. These sharks, as well as several others, are identified as the species specific to the petition.

Please sign the online petition by clicking the picture to the right and come join us for some great diving adventures!

Peter

WHALES AND WHALE SHARKS...

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January 31, 2011
 
Apologies for the lack of recent updates, the good news is we are implementing a blog into our site that will have weekly updates with photo and video. This should be live in the next two weeks.

So the water temperature has dropped, fluctuating between 70 and 67 degrees, so it is 7mm wetsuit time! On the other hand it is also the time of year that Humpback Whales frequent the waters off Cabo San Lucas to have their babies! Check out the divers below enjoying a surface interval watching a mother and baby frolick alongside Manta 1.

photos by Peter Wilcox

Other notable notes, while this time of year usually means a serious drop in the usual great visability here, lately it has been hovering around 50+ feet and we were excited to see thousands of beautiful jelly fish surrounding our local sites over the past weeks (no stings, just amazing to watch).

We are excited to have Claudio, a long term Instructor with Manta returning to guide and teach divers. It also seems to be a high season for divers who are headed to the Socorro Islands coming in for some 'tune-up' dives before heading out with the new Agressor, or the Nautilus Explorer and Solmar V.

Other than the notable whales and beautiful jellies we also have been enjoying wonderful excursions to snorkel with Whale Sharks!

This is a day long trip, perfect for an 'off-gassing' day and a good underwater photo opportunity, just remember, you'll need a wide angle lens...

Finally, the Corridor has been great lately with schools of mobula rays, cow nosed rays and even giant electric rays and guitarfish. If you are heading to Cabo, plan on visiting both the Cabo San Lucas Marine park for sealions and big schools of fish and also the quiet Corridor for dive sites all to ourselves with a great chance to see these beautiful underwater flyers.

Check back for a Big Blog release soon!

Peter

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November 8, 2010
 
Like our diver states below... Gordo is still good, but there is not just Gordo here, the corridor has been with great vis lately and the local with the sea lions playing around starts as well to be very  atractive, sandfalls offer a great show falling strong...  just come and enjoy it with us!

" I dived with Luis at Gordo Banks last week (Friday, October 29th) and we saw at least 200 hammerheads on that dive..........and nobody will believe me back here at home in Canada!!
 
I had an awesome day, thank you guys very much. I'll be diving with you every time I'm down there."
 
Kirk, leader
Saskatchewan, Canada

Cheers and thanks to Kirk for his comments!
 
Melissa

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BEST TIME OF THE YEAR...

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September 28, 2010
 
It's now October and November.. even though we have not seen hammerheads schooling for the last 3 weeks, we still have a lot of activity in the Gordo Banks! Schools of green jacks, bonitas, yellow fins, wahoos... really a nice dive full of marine life. You really get motivated when seeing so much actoin down there.

Of course, hammerheads are the highlight of this trip but in any case, it is a different and worthwhile dive site. The water is war and beautiful in all of the sites.

We saw 1-2 Bull sharks in Cabo Pulmo in the last few trips. Local sites will have huge schools of bait-balls and sea lions in the coming weeks. Today we were lucky in the local sites swimming with a large school of mobulas.

The local and corridor sites are espectacular now with very clear and warm water. This is why October is stil one of my favorites months to dive in Cabo!

Here some pictures:

photo by Luis Bringas

photo by Luis Bringas

photo by Luis Bringas
 
Cheers,
 
Melissa

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DEAR FRIENDS,

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August 30, 2010 

 
No hurricane hit so we are back on track.. Here are few pictures of some of the marine life we have been seeing in Gordo Banks lately. We have been lucky. Being in open water is like a box of chocolates (excuse the cliché) ... but you never know what you will get!

Come and dive!
 
Cheers,
 
Melissa

photo by Kiki

photo by Kiki

photo by Kiki

photo by Kiki

 

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HELLO!

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June 28, 2010 
 
Diving in Gordo Banks is just getting better day by day. We are seeing hammerheads on every dive, seems that our friends the marlins are letting themselves show off as well. We even saw 2 silky sharks 2 days ago. Gordo is The dive spot, and right now it's HOT!
 
We are also doing a nice trip starting with Gordo and then heading to another reef closer, this might be appealing too, we are open to a whole of different opinions and you could actually make your dive trip plan, check with me about that at mantascuba@gmail.com, I will be more than happy to organize something with you.
 
Here is a pic of the latest dive trip I went to, in Cabo Pulmo, great water this day, and a bunch of happy divers.
 
Cheers!
 
Melissa

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HI!

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June 28, 2010 
 
Just wanted to do a quick update regarding the most recent trips to Gordo Banks the East Cape. We have been seeing a lot of hammerheads and the waters have been busy with schools of pork fish,  huge amber jacks, goats, one pacific manta... Well yes, the waters have been busy!
 

Hope you can join us in these trips, the East Cape is becoming more popular and a nice option to combine so many different sites in one trip!

photo by Kiki

Hope to see you soon!
 
Melissa

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CHECK IT OUT!

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June 3, 2010 
 
Our latest (2 minute) video by Eric Suter...
 

 
Eran

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HEY DIVERS!

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May 25, 2010 
 
The week's report for the expeditions...
 


Cabo Pulmo was nice with lots of life and strong currents, and a Whale Shark sited on the third dive today!

We saw in Gordo Banks: Hammenrheads on 2 of the 3 trips, tons of marine life and nice rides with marlins jumping, dolphins, whales!

In the local diving, Nacho and John met the white tip shark face to face on the night dive.
 
We miss Claudio our star instructor ;), but he will be back soon from a well earned holliday in Argentina...
 
Looking forward to hear from you!
 
Melissa

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HELLO!

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May 12, 2010 
 
Back after some great hollidays and I bump into a bunch of good news, since we started running our annual trips to Cabo Pulmo and Gordo Banks it all has been good news.

Gordo: tons of fish with 1 Hammerhead, clear water from 0-60 ft and deeper then 80 ft on the last dive trip there which was less than a week ago.

Baby whale shark in Pulmo today with great water temp of 75f and good vis!

Local sites have been cool also, with white tip reef shark, some sea lions playing around and water temp changin from 70 to a surprisingly 75 and back again.
 
I'll be looking forward to hear from you for our full day trips.
 
Cheers!
 
Melissa