Advanced Diving in Socorro

Lying 250 miles off Mexico’s western coastline is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Revillagigedo Archipelago. The four-island group - San Benedicto, Roca Partida, Clarión and Socorro – has been dubbed the ‘Galapagos of Mexico,’ and with very good reason. Huge schools of hammerheads, pods of playful bottlenose dolphins and long trains of mantas regularly pass through these remote islands. Of the four islands, Socorro is the largest and best known, and its name is often used to refer to the entire archipelago. With its open location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Socorro’s dive sites are deep, remote, current-prone and often experience tricky surges at the surface: Socorro diving is advanced diving. In Socorro, however, lots of current can mean lots of hammerheads...

Roca Partida

The smaller of the four islands, Roca Partida, is 300 feet long and 25 feet wide, and is essentially a single dive site. The exposed island rises 100 feet out of the ocean, and when the currents are strong, it's considered among the more advanced diving in Socorro.

The guano-encrusted rock is a magnet for megafauna. You can see several species of sharks, including schooling scalloped hammerheads, silkies, Galápagos and dusky sharks, while there's always a chance of a passing whale shark or an inquisitive tiger!

El Boiler, San Benedicto

The Boiler is one of the most eagerly anticipated dive sites on liveaboard trips to Socorro, as it's considered the premier spot for oceanic manta ray (Manta birostris) encounters in the archipelago. The site features a large pinnacle that rises up from the depths to within a few metres of the surface and is inhabited by striking Clarion angelfish.

The mantas come to be cleaned by the angelfish and are often present for the entire dive, circling the pinnacle. Keep an eye out in the blue for schooling bonito and jacks and various species of shark cruising by. As a pinnacle dive, there can be limited protection from the elements, and when the currents are running, this can be among the more advanced diving in Socorro.

Cabo Pearce, Socorro

While there are a few dive sites in Socorro that afford the diver protection from the current, Cabo Pearce can be tricky when the currents pick up. The site is a long, thin finger reef extending out from the eastern side of Socorro Island, and a quick descent is sometimes necessary to reach the shelter of the reef. Once there, hunker down behind a boulder and wait and see what cruises by. The site is often visited by silky sharks and manta rays, and as always in Socorro, there's the chance of schooling hammerheads.

Our team of dive travel specialists has dived extensively throughout Mexico and can help put together the perfect itinerary for you to enjoy the advanced diving in Socorro. After enjoying the strong currents and plentiful sharks in Socorro, why not relax on the beaches of Baja California or the Yucatan Peninsula too?