This post was written by expedition team member Wendy Benchley.

The devastating reality of a depleted sea rocked my soul yesterday. The El Bajo seamount still rises with majesty from the sea bed, but it is fundamentally changed.


Moon rise over the Sea of Cortez

Twenty five years ago, I remember the thrill of swimming off the edge of the seamount into the open blue water to cruise with schools of jacks, tuna, grouper, hammerheads and, with luck, a manta ray of two. Now the only schools of fish were tiny chromis and on the top of the mount were small numbers of angel, butterfly, trigger, puffer and scorpion fishes. My heart leapt when off in the distance I saw a grouper. Imagine that, one grouper is now a treat in this depleted sea!

The data and images we are recording will be important to move ocean conversation issues forward. I keep hope alive by focusing on the work Greg Stone, the New England Aquarium and Conservation International did to create the California-sized Phoenix Islands marine protected area in the Pacific ocean. If we could create more of these areas there is a chance the ocean could regain enough health to provide the fish protein needed to feed the world.

Perhaps this afternoon I will see a different ocean. I'm in high anticipation--it's my turn to ride in the DEEPSEE. Claustrophobia was worrying me a couple days ago, but now that I've seen the superbly trained pilots put the expertly crafted sub through its paces, I feel not a twinge of anxiety. I hope to see a deeper ocean filled with life and perhaps a manta or two to make my heart sing.

- Wendy Benchley

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Labels: biodiversity, El Bajo Seamount, Manta Ray, Wendy Benchley

I had my first dive at El Bajo yesterday in DEEPSEE and what a dive it was. Brian Skerry, Avi Klapfer (the pilot) and I drifted down the south side of the seamount at 4:00 p.m., my favorite time of day in the ocean. Ocean life tends to come alive late in the day as the sun goes down. And DEEPSEE gives you a totally immersive view of the ocean through the plexiglas bubble.


Preparing for a submarine dive

First we drifted down to the summit of the seamount while filmmaker Adam Geiger SCUBA dived around the sub and filmed us. Then we headed into deeper water and saw schools of red fish, amber jacks, garden eels poking their serpent like necks from the sand and peering at us and finally we came upon a sad surprise. It was a giant "ghost net" wrapped around a rock, an old seine net. This was a reminder to us of why this seamount, while beautiful in its own way now, does not have the abundance of marine life that it once had.

Back in the 1980s, there was a time when hundreds of hammerhead sharks, dozens of manta rays and other large fishes swam and circled El Bajo. We spent a long time filming the net and Brian made photographs for our National Geographic magazine article. Avi expertly maneuvered the sub in away that amazed me. A six ton vehicle and he could slide it sideways, up and down to a tolerance of a 1/4 inch.

After leaving the net we continued on and were soon surrounded by spawning fish. Male and female fish swimming in tight circles and ejecting sperm and egg into the water column, hopefully a sign that this area is recovery from overfishing.


Brian Skerry, Avi Klapfer and Greg Stone

As we neared the end of our dive we saw one more encouraging sign that was a 12 foot hammerhead shark that swam by the bubble of our sub and off into the abyss.

This, for me, was a perfect, day.

-Gregory Stone

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Labels: El Bajo Seamount, Greg Stone, Manta Ray, overfishing

This post was written by expedition team member Wendy Benchley, wife of the ocean conservationist and author Peter Benchley.


Wendy Benchley on board the ARGOS with the expedition crew


Greg Stone and Wendy Benchley with the DEEPSEE submarine


How thrilling it is to be back on the Sea of Cortez--it was a special place for Peter and me. When we were here on the El Bajo seamount in the '80s it was teeming with life and, although the congregation of thousands of hammerhead sharks was billed as the main attraction, it was a magnificent giant manta ray that stole the show, and Peter's heart.

For three remarkable days a willing manta gave Peter and others soaring flights through the depths of the blue ocean. It always returned them to the dive boat and, at the risk of anthropomorphizing, it seemed to relish the human interaction. Peter was so awed by the experience that he returned home and wrote The Girl of the Sea of Cortez in about four passionate months. Of all his novels, it's my favorite. It's a "great read," but it also shows Peter's deep understanding of the complexity and fragility of the ocean and its creatures.

We'll be diving El Bajo sea mount in a couple days and, sadly, I hear it has been decimated by overfishing. But today was a wonderful day to celebrate the beauty of the ocean! We thrilled to open water snorkeling with pods of pilot whales. Some were curious enough to come within arms length and I was cheered and awed by their power, speed and grace.

-Wendy Benchley



Wendy and Peter Benchley photographed on Capitol Hill during a meeting concerning anti-shark finning legislation

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Labels: Hammerhead Shark, Manta Ray, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, Wendy Benchley