Los Arcos (The
Arches) is one of the most popular diving and snorkeling spots
in Bahía de Banderas (Bay of Flags) and is
visited by many of the local tourist companies (link) and dive
shops (link). It comprises five granite islets from 5-50 m (16-160 ft) high about 10 km (6 mi) south of Puerto Vallarta. I snorkeled the rocks when we were here in early April and again when we
returned in early June.
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| Los Arcos from Puerto Vallarta |
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| The arches |
On a nice day, it’s not unusual to see 4-6 dive and
snorkeling boats and dozens of people in the water. Water depths range from a few meters to
about 500 m (1,600 ft). Devil’s Canyon on the west side, is a wall dive that
starts at about 18 m (60 ft) (link). Underwater attractions include caves, grottoes, tunnels, rocks the size of small houses and a beautiful reef.
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| Dive boats at Los Arcos |
Los Arcos is
usually described as a national marine park (link, link) national reserve (link) or protected area (link). However, it does not appear on CONANP’s
list of national parks (Parques Nacionales) (link), protected areas (Áreas Protegidas) (link) or nature sanctuaries (link).
[CONANP (La Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, or the National
Commission of Natural Protected Areas) manages Mexico's system of 173 natural areas
(link).] Los Arcos may be "protected" by the state of Jalisco [although it does not appear on the state list of protected areas (link), link), (link)], but every time I dove there, I saw commercial and sport fishermen harvesting fish and invertebrates.
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| Handlining from shore |
Most Mexicans that fish from shore use handlines.
Monofilament line is coiled on a large spool and a hook and weight are attached
to one end. The fisherman twirls the line over his head several times and
throws the baited hook as far as he can (I only saw one woman handlining). The
men in the pictures below were handlining from a partially submerged rock when one
of them caught a large needlefish (aguja*; Belonidae). They had to swim the
fish to shore. I asked the guy if needlefish were good to eat; he said yes and
held the fish for a picture. With a large smile he said “mucho carne” (a lot of
meat).
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| Handlining |
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| Needlefish |
Needlefish are pelagic (water column) predators. They have
a mouth full of teeth and swim close to the surface and attack their prey
(small fishes) with a burst of speed. See how the dorsal and ventral fins are located
near the tail fin – think of an arrow shot from a bow.
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| Large needlefish [maximum size is 4.5 ft (Human and Loach 2004)] |
I snorkeled Los Arcos with my camera several times in April
while we were staying at Boca de Tomatlán. One morning I ran into a diver wearing
tights and layers of cotton tee shirts with fins that had been
repaired several times. He was freediving (breath-hold diving) for octopi and carried
several on a stringer attached to his waist. I asked him if I could take his
picture and he said yes. He was in his late 30s and probably sells his catch. He has
no weight belt, but wears a chain around his waist and tucks some of his gear under his shirts.
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| Octopus diver |
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| Octopus diver's catch |
After taking some pictures, I left to check a cave at
the bottom of a rock wall. Back on the surface, I heard a shout, lifted my
head above the water and saw him motioning to me. When I swam over to him, he was
pointing with his stick to the bottom 6 m (20 ft) below. I assumed it was an
octopus, but I couldn't see it from the surface. I took a few deep breaths and
dove towards a light-colored rock where he was pointing. As I approached the
bottom, I could see a brown blob about the size of my fist next to a rock; it
was an octopus.
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| Octopus (brown blob center left) and diver's octopus tool (upper right) |
I took a couple pictures, motioned okay with my fingers and backed
away. He caught the octopus and returned to the surface where he put it on
his stringer. The octopus is inking in the picture below.
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| Octopus diver adding octopus to his stringer |
I ran into the octopus diver a couple more times at Los Arcos
and at some patch reefs farther north. The following pictures were taken in
June at the farthest offshore rock at Los Arcos. This time, in addition to hunting octopi,
he was handlining for fish and wearing mismatched fins. He carried
a spool of monofilament line with a weight on the end and dropped a baited hook to
the cobble bottom. It looked like he was sight fishing for small seabass (Serranidae) living among the boulders.
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| Octopus diver fishing with a handline |
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| Octopus diver adding fish to his stringer |
On another occasion, I ran into two guys in a green canoe in
the cut between the large offshore rock and the middle rock with the tunnel. It
was early morning before the dive boats arrived. The guy in the water had a
polespear with a trident tip and was hunting fish while the other guy followed
in the canoe.
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| Spearfisherman with a small Mexican hogfish |
The spearfisherman let me take his picture. His
gear consisted of board shorts, an old-style oval mask and a polespear.
He had no snorkel or fins and had to work hard to get to the bottom and even
harder to stay at the surface between dives. I followed him through the tunnel of the middle islet and along a rock wall
to a boulder field in 7-8 m (23-26 ft) of water. The
guy in the boat gave him a plastic bag of fish parts and the diver began
to chum the boulders. In less than a minute there were a dozen small
fish on the chum. He made several dives and took a couple shots (I could hear
the spear bounce off the rocks), but didn't hit anything.
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| Chumming |
I followed the spearfisherman for 20 minutes and saw him take a dozen shots
and catch three small fish – a juvenile hogfish, a small seabass and an unidentified fish. “You have fins. I don't have fins. Take this” he said in English as he offered
me his polespear. I thanked him but declined. I don't feel good about shooting
small reef fish. I’m after pictures, not fillets. It’s a good thing that these guys
can’t afford better equipment. Whether they're fishing for their family or
selling their catch, they are efficient hunters even with inferior gear.
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| Hunting along the bottom |
The reefs along this coast are heavily fished and even small individuals of the target
species (hogfish, parrotfish, seabass, snappers, grunts) are wary of divers.
I saw few large individuals, and when I did, if I make eye contact with them, they quickly
swam away, or dove into a cave or under a boulder. I've learned to sit
quietly on the bottom and the more curious individuals will often show
themselves. I just can't bring myself to shoot them.
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| A Panama graysby (Serranidae) checking me out and a tinsel squirrelfish (below the graysby; Holocentridae) |
Following are some pictures I took while freediving at Los Arcos. The visibility was never great; sometimes it was poor. In March and April, the the water was filled with particles from plankton blooms.
I use a flash on my underwater camera and particles reflect the
light. The farther I am from the subject, the more particles there are to
scatter light, so some pictures look like I'm diving in a snowstorm. The nearshore areas were also plagued by blooms of jellyfish, which are linked to the plankton blooms that are stimulated by surface runoff and sewage discharges (link). I was wearing a full wetsuit, but still I was stung several times on my forehead and lips.
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| Reef stingray (Urolophidae) |
*Seven
species of needlefishes occur along the Pacific Coast; they are difficult to distinguish underwater and there can be more than one species in a school (Humann and DeLoach 2004)
Humann, P. and N. DeLoach. 2004. Reef Fish
Identification: Baja to Panama. New World Publications, Jacksonville, FL. 342
pp.
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