This summer, in July through August, I did 3 trips to Malpelo.
As Malpelo is always changing, each trip is never the same. It changes quickly and you experience each trip differently, in terms of weather above and “weather” underwater. You also get to witness the change of the marine life. One trip that follows another can give very different experiences.
In general, I like this time of the year as it gives a broader experience than my wintertime trips (January through March), where you have a better chance of seeing the massive groups of hammerheads up close. However, you see less of the impressive amount of variation and marine life in the summertime. This is because the visibility and massive currents limit you to specific dive sites that can be accessed in these conditions. The water temperature is also much colder in winter.
I had 3 fantastic groups on the 3 trips; some old friends I have been diving with for years and new friends whom I met and hope that it won’t be the last time we come together again. Thank you for coming!
Here is a short debrief of my 3 most recent trips to Malpelo:
Malpelo Trip #1
Water temp 27 C (81 F), visibility often 100 ft (30 m) plus, almost no thermocline until down to 120 ft (37 m) of water. Sea and weather conditions generally good with some rain; not too much wind nor too many waves.
We saw very few of the hammerheads even if we dove all around the island and the satellite islands in the north and south. There were some schools but at a far distance. When it comes to Galapagos sharks, we encountered plenty patrolling around the cleaning stations in many sites. At El Bajon, we could see up to 15-20 individuals, some were up very close. Very cool!
We saw a lot of fish life, especially big-eye jacks at Three Musketeers. At la Gringa, juvenile jacks surrounded us like a snowstorm. We also had the mullet snappers at Three Musketeers and at Acuario.
There are more tiger sharks around Malpelo now compared to some years ago, and we did have some encounters. In general, they just do their thing and cruise by. The other group saw the small-tooth sand tiger shark, the Ferox or “the monster” as it’s known locally, at la Cara de la Fantasma at just around 60 ft of water. A deep-water dinosaur.
Whale sharks had come in, so we had a couple of sightings of them as well. So, very few hammerheads, but a lot of other life and other sharks.
Malpelo Trip #2
Average water temp 27 C (81 F) with a thermocline down to 25 C (77 F). The thermocline started to change and the current picked up. 3 days with a lot of wind and rain; the last 2 days with much better weather.
With the changing thermocline and a slight switch in the current, some more hammerheads came in. So, that’s good news.
The whale sharks were still around, and we also had mantas passing by. The fish life was about the same as the last trip, very rich.
We were not able to visit the south as much as before since the wind and weather coming from the south prevented us from getting there. On the last two days, we were gifted with better weather and managed to get down to La Gringa and El Bajon. Not as many hammers there, but we saw some Galapagos sharks.
More hammerheads were spotted at La Nevera, and it was nice to see more of them now than on the first trip.
Malpelo Trip #3
Conditions changed a lot. Water temp down to 23 C (73 F) as the coldest, but mostly 27-28 C (81-82 F). The viz varied from 100 ft (30 m) to 35 -40 ft (11-12 m) as the lowest.
The hammerheads are here and we had our best sightings at David and between Monster and Malpelo. We thought that we wouldn’t get the whale sharks until the trip ended, but we finally had a big female coming straight up to us! Beautiful sight!
Acuario was loaded with big Galapagos sharks by the cleaning station. Above us, bonitos flowed in an endless stream and the mullet snappers were in tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of animal that pooped so much that the viz actually got bad. We drifted from Acuario to Three Musketeers and landed in the mega-school of big-eye jacks. Just one hour of endless fish life. Great dive!
We did a repeat dive at D’Artagnan and Three Musketeers and played with the school of big-eye jacks and mullets snappers, while big Galapagos cruised on the bottom at 100-115 ft (30-40 m). At Bajo del Cielo, there were lot of Galapagos sharks and a pelagic black-tip shark, which was much faster and more nervous than the Galapagos. We watched the rainbow chubs scratching themselves on top of the rock, making them look like a fountain of fish. It’s really beautiful to watch. It’s like they do a body scrub and they use just that top of the rock year after year since I came here for the first time 16 years ago. You can touch the top of the rock and it’s so smooth from their annual body spa, scrubbing themselves a million times on the same spot of rock.
Witnessing Violence in Nature
We also had a really wild mating behavior with 10-12 males mating with one poor female white-tip shark. At the entrance of the cavern of Aquamarina, we watched two males mating with her until she managed to escape. It was very violent and it happened right in front of our eyes; something very, very rare to see. It was getting so close and violent that some of our divers had had enough.
Seeing this, you understand why the female sharks, mantas and rays are bigger and have thicker skin to be able to survive a gang rape like this as the males bite her pectoral fin to get a grip of her and also biting and holding her gills; choking her so she gets almost paralyzed… nothing tender or soft about it, just very violent.
Jackie’s video is uploaded to my YouTube channel if you’d like to watch the full version.
Hunting moray eels in cooperation with leather bass, bluefin trevallies and huge amber jacks above us were seen in the morning dive. They hunt together and when it gets very intense, even the Galapagos sharks come in to take part of the hunt.
This trip was definitely the best of the 3 trips in terms of wildlife and the weather, and it was a great way to end my 2025 season in Malpelo.
Each trip has its character. I don’t think I’ll get tired of Malpelo. It’s hard to dive it and challenging when it comes to weather, current, and finding where the most life is. But when the stars are aligned, it’s just so good!
I won’t be back until March next year. That’s the winter time when I expect to see more hammerheads, but not seeing as much of the life as in the summertime.
Thanks for this time!
Sten
