Smmcdonald
Costa Rica
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Nº88
Date: 2016-09-12 - 11:10
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Max Depth: 24.6m Duration: 47mins
Dive Location
- Temp: Surf 28°C Bottom 25°C
- Dive type : Recreational
- Visibility: Average Water: Salt
Specific gear used
- Weights: 4.5 kg
Recent Divers in Playa Matapalito
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Dive Profile
- 1. Nitrox 31
- 12L Aluminium 202 → 24 bar
- Average depth: 13.8m
Data provided by EOL.org
Species Identified
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A low overcast greeted us at the beach today. As we climbed aboard the catamaran from our skiff, our Rocket Frog Divers guide told us we would try to make it out to the Catalina Islands today, but the weather was not favorable at the moment, and the seas may prove too rough to make it that far out. Past an hour into the ride, our captain indicated that the seas were getting worse the further out we went. They were already rolling in around 4', and the trip had taken us longer to reach the half-way point than it normally takes to get all the way to our site. He gave us the choice to continue on, or turn back and head to a site nearer inshore. I turned the question back to the captain, saying we would do what he thought prudent. Thus, we turned and headed back toward Punta Gorda, a dive site just off a point southwest of Play Ocotal.
The water was stirred up, and the visibility was worse than yesterday. As the guide skimmed along the bottom, I noticed a large butterfly fish school following him. They apparently are used to the divers and use them as a source of food; the divers stir up the bottom flushing out food for the fish. I also noticed a lot of large, 3-4" clam shells opened exposing their bright white mother-of-pearl, brightly contrasting with the algae covered rubble.
But the highlight of the dive--in fact the dive trip to this point--came next. I saw the guide stop ahead of us and cup his ears. I stopped and held my breath for a moment and listened. Nothing. We swam on a little further. Then suddenly, Jen stopped and turned, eyes wide and her hand up to her ear. There it was, in the distance, a melodic whooping sound. For the next several minutes, the sounds got louder, and then faded. We never caught site of the whales, as they were far in the distance, but the songs made an impression nonetheless. It was definitely one of the most exhilarating moments of all of my dives.
Several large conchs and other shellfish were scattered among the rocky bottom. As we circled the rocks, some areas cleared up and the visibility was better. In one of these clearer areas, Jen caught site of an eagle ray as it passed us heading in the opposite direction and parallel to our direction.
This wasn't a drift dive, but our plan was to swim around the rock piles until it was time to surface. This would lead us far enough from the boats where it would be necessary--or at least prudent--to deploy a safety marker as we held at our safety stop. We soon surfaced to find that the clouds had lifted and blue skies were starting to appear to the west, but offshore toward our resort we could see rain. On the boat, we could see the whale spouts on the horizon, about a half mile to a mile in the distance. The guide said these are likely the whales we heard, as the sound travels a great distance under water.
It's really hard to complain about this dive, if nothing more than for hearing the whales. But for a site that was presented as a good area to find macro life, I (and others) felt that our dive guide moved far to quickly. It would have been nice to search the rocks for more macro life. In fact, I would have been happy to lay in one spot and just listen. What a wonderful experience!