Ocean Safari Blog

In November, Ocean Safari led a trip to one of the most remote areas of the Coral Triangle – the Spice Islands and the outer Raja Ampat. 16 lucky souls embarked on this epic journey covering more than 900km aboard the luxury liveaboard, Arenui. Everyone did more than 30 dives, many of which were exciting exploratory dives. So many fun memories!

At home, we went diving at the oil rigs aboard the Giant Stride. It's always amazing to see the contrast between the structure above and below the water. As you approach the oil rigs, all you see is the cold and grungy structure. Underwater, it is a completely different world. The whole structure is covered with invertebrates and there are countless fish swimming around the structure. Every now and then, you will be visited by the playful sea lions!

We had so much fun diving and hanging out at Santa Barbara Island on a two-day dive trip aboard the Bottom Scratcher on October 19 & 20. 
Check out the cool video by Sam Regan from this trip.

As usual, we had the playful sea lions zoom by and play around us. It's always fun to see them twirl around and swim around like crazed puppies. On a few of the dives we had the black sea bass approach us and stay close for almost the entire dive. They are such magnificent creatures, The lobster hunters also did very well on this trip. Everyone went home happy!

Interested in learning more about the ocean and her inhabitants? Come join Ocean Safari’s marine biology seminar series, taught by our in-house biologist, Haruka Ito, who will be filling you in with content from her college marine biology course! 

The lessons will all be independent from each other - so worry not if you aren’t able to commit to the full series. Topics include marine geography, seaweeds & marine plants, invertebrates, adaptations of marine mammals and seabirds, and more! 

You can also obtain a NAUI Underwater Naturalist certification when combined with one field survey on one of our local boat trips and completion of a small homework assignment.

Sign up onlne using our trip booking system, or call us at 626-287-6283 to get more info and sign up.

Session 1: July 3, 6:00pm -8:00pm

Session 2: July 10, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 3: July 17, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 4: July 31, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 5: August 6, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 6: August 14, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 7: August 21, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Session 8: August 28, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

We started the Taiwan portion of the spring 2024 overseas trip in March and wrapped up the trip in the beginning of April. We ventured down to the southern tip of Taiwan and enjoyed diving in Kenting National Park. We loved the rustic and laid-back feeling of Kenting and we felt we experienced more authentic Taiwan. This was such a fun-filled and memorable trip that we started planning another Taiwan trip while we were still there.

Some of us continued on to Anilao, Philippines, after the Taiwan portion of the trip. We were joined by more Ocean Safari divers there for a 5-nights, 6-day dive trip. Anilao is considered macro photography heaven, but there were more than just tiny critters to see. Of course we saw countless tiny nudibranchs, shrimps, crabs, and fish, but we also enjoyed swimming over a wide field of heathy coral reef teeming with fish. We enjoyed our stay at the resort and had so much fun diving and hanging out with each other. We were discussing planning another trip there before we even started packing for our trip home.

It was a record setting November for Ocean Safari. We had five different overseas diving and eco expeditions in three weeks – Galapagos, Ecuador, Cabo Pulmo, La Paz, and Magdalena Bay Sardine Run. Alongside the overseas trips, we also ran local dive trips to Catalina, pool sessions, and seminars. This was one of our busiest November, but it was a month of great adventures and wonderful memories for everyone. We look forward to setting another record in the near future.