Shark Diving • Gordo Banks

Dive with hammerhead sharks at an offshore sea mount

Have you ever wanted to dive with schools of sharks? Join us for a shark diving tour like no other. Leaving out of our sister shop East Cape Explorers in San Jose del Cabo, we cruise 40 minutes to Gordo Banks, a pair of deep, underwater pinnacles roughly 7-8 miles from shore.

During the drive, you will receive a detailed and thorough briefing on how to dive the site correctly, safety procedures, shark behavior, and more from our highly experienced Dive Guides. And then you drop into the blue – with no reference, you execute a controlled descent to the depth decided by your guide, and float through the endless ocean while looking for sharks. This is a truly unique place where huge numbers of sharks can be seen – however it is very important to understand that it is not an aquarium, and sightings are not guaranteed.

Due to the complete lack of reference and advanced nature of this dive, we require all divers to complete a Local 2-Tank dive with us or “East Cape Explorers” on a day prior to diving Gordo Banks. This allows us to assess your buoyancy control, air consumption and general dive ability with no-reference diving in mind. It is also very important to know the amount of weight required before diving Gordo Banks, as the drop is very fast and there is no time to adjust weights.

Shark Diving - Group Tour

Hammerhead Sharks • Manta Rays • Whale Sharks • Mobula Rays

Price:
$210 USD per person

Payment Methods:
Visa & Mastercard & AMEX
10% Discount for Cash (USD, MXN, CAD)

Included:
2 dives, tanks, weights,
Drinks and snacks.
Free photography service

Availability:
Wednesdays & Saturdays – 7:15 – 15:00

Add Ons:
Dive equipment rental – $35 USD
Private Dive Guide – $150 USD

Hotel Pick-Up:
Click HERE to book your transportation

Tour Description:

Check in is at our dive shop in Cabo San Lucas at 7:15am, followed by a 45 minute drive to our sister location East Cape Explorers in San Jose del Cabo. You then board the boat to Gordo Banks in San Jose, and hope to reach the site within 40-60 minutes.

We conduct 2 deep dives to a maximum of 130ft/40m, with a 1 hour surface interval. Depending on the sea conditions we aim to return to the marina in San Jose del Cabo between 1-2pm. You would then be provided transport back to Dive Cabo.

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Shark Diving - Private Tour

Silky Sharks • Marlin • Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks • Whales

Rates:
$850 US – 1-2 Divers
$150 US – Additional Diver
Passengers – Free of Charge
Taxes Included

Payment Methods:
VISA & Mastercard
10% Discount for Cash (USD, CAD, MXN)

Included:
2 Deep Dives
Full Dive Equipment Rental
Private Dive Guide
Drinks & Snacks
Underwater Photography Service

Availability:
Daily from 8:00 – 13:00

Tour Description:

Join us for the best private shark diving charters in Cabo San Lucas. Our private dive charters include your own private dive guide, in addition to all necessary dive equipment rental. Furthermore, if you travel with friends or family members who don’t dive, they are welcome to ride along free of charge!

Our private shark diving charters to Gordo Banks depart from the marina in Cabo San Lucas by boat. It takes approximately 1.5 hours by boat each way. Depending on sea conditions, we will decide if we do both dives at the inner Gordo Banks or one dive at the inner and the other at the outer. Check in is at 7:15, and we aim to have you back on land between 14-30 – 16:00.

Common Marine Life at Gordo Banks

Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks

Scalloped Hammerheads, like all sharks, are perfectly designed to do what they do. Every aspect of their body is custom made for their interaction with their environment. Their hammer-shaped head, properly known as a cephalofoil, gives them multiple advantages. It is narrower at the ends, allowing them to change direction rapidly by cutting through the water.

This is particularly useful, as often their prey are fast-moving and agile animals, such as mackerel and squid. Their eyes are positioned at the far ends of the cephalofoil, creating an effect that essentially reduces their blindspot, allowing them to judge distances more easily, which aids in hunting.

As all sharks, Scalloped Hammerheads have what are called ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ positioned all along their cephalofoil. These are sensory organs, which simply put, are the sharks prey-detection radar. Scalloped Hammerheads can grow up to 8ft long, and weigh more than 80lbs.

One of the reasons why Gordo Banks creates such good opportunities for seeing hammerhead sharks is something called ‘refuging’. They gather in large numbers during the day around the seamounts, to shelter from currents, socialize, and utilize safety in numbers. They will then disperse at night to hunt, either alone or in groups of 2 or 3. The seamounts also support large ecosystems, providing the perfect habitat for hammerhead prey items such as mackerel and skipjacks.

Striped Marlin

Striped marlin are a highly migratory fish living at the top of the food chain in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is a member of a larger family known as billfish, which get their name from their upper jaw that extends to form a spear. Because of their large size, marlin are prized sport fish.

The striped marlin’ is a predator that hunts during the day in the top 100 m or so of the water column, often near the surface. One of their chief prey is sardines. It has a record weight (in 1982) of over 200 kg (440 lb) and a maximum length of 4.2 m (13.8 ft).

Silky Sharks

Silky Sharks are the rockstars of Gordo Banks, and for many of our divers, their favorite shark to dive with. The Silky Shark gets its name from the smooth and silky texture of its skin. At Gordo Banks they can be seen singly all year round, but their main migration is July-September.

They have an extremely strong sense of hearing. This acts as a great advantage for locating their prey, mostly consisting of bony fish (especially Tuna), octopus, and squids. These predators have a perfect and effective hunting behavior. They dive together in large groups of fish and attack them with lighting fast speed and wide open mouths. For us as divers, they are great fun – they have almost no fear of humans, and love to approach closely before veering away. Silkies are not dangerous to humans, but your dive guide will explain best practice for diving with them, to ensure you get the best interactions.

Humpback Whales

We are lucky here in Baja California Sur to have the opportunity to see many different species of whale. However our most frequent visitor is the Humpback. The Whale season is from December to April, with the most sightings being in February. On our journeys to and from Gordo Banks, as well as in the hour long surface interval, we can often enjoy spectacular displays from males, females and even their calves.

The humpback whale is one of the largest animals on Earth, growing to lengths of more than 50 feet (16 m) and weights of 40 tons (36 metric tonnes).They are very active, and can be seen breaching out of the water, slapping the surfacing with their fins and tails and twirling underwater.

Giant Mobula Rays

Otherwise known as Giant Devilrays, these are some the largest of the Mobula rays. At Gordo Banks, we can often see them in large schools, as well as alone. They are curious and relatively unafraid, and will sometimes slowly approach diver groups and circle them once or twice, often doing graceful acrobatic displays.

Like whales, Giant mobula rays perform breaches or jumps above the water for unknown reasons. Giant mobula rays all have a black “crescent” shaped stripe that extends shoulder to shoulder, differentiating them from the similar-looking Manta Ray. At maturity the giant devil ray will measure out at an average of 6-9 feet wide, but can continue to grow to a max of 17 feet. .

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