Rock clefts are filled with long-spined sea urchins, home to eels and nocturnally active fish, as well as invertebrate and fish species that provide parasite removal cleaning stations. The rock faces are minimalist in the extreme and austere, not featureless, but scarred with crevices. Oceanic bottlenose dolphins returning from nocturnal hunting To be sure, the seascape has a handsomeness – the word people use when they mean strong-featured but not soothing or serene – and a rugged kind of beauty of naked geological formations and structures well-worn over time. The stark contrast between the scale of the formations and the absence of distracting or pleasing colour makes for a very dramatic but uneasy arena. The colour palette below the surface is limited to a pale khaki to chalky-white in places, with fissures and gouges of black, otherwise, it is a universe of greys from light to dark. It is a forlorn, stark, and primaeval backdrop: massive stone formations the size of houses or city blocks sheer cliff faces extending above sea level and descending into the depths escarpments and ledges, overhangs and undercuts gargantuan rocks and massive boulders dominate the subsea terrain. There is, in fact, relatively little coral – a few species of stony coral rather weathered in appearance. The underwater vista lacks the multitude of colour and variety of living structures of a healthy Indo-Pacific coral reef. The topography is not pretty in a classical sense. The waves unleash their accumulated energies with an explosive power upon these island specks – the first terrestrial obstacles they encounter. This vast expanse of ocean is in a perpetual state of turbulence from competing current flows and wind-driven waves travelling vast distances. This call to adventure is answered in the waters adjacent to a select few islands – 26 in total (three solitary islands and two archipelagos) scattered across an enormous seascape. Revillagigedo Archipelago & Guadalupe Island.
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