Diving in North Seymour and Mosquera
Santa Cruz Dive Sites
- Last Updated: September 22, 2024
Diving in North Seymour and Mosquera sites is what you have to do if you want to be surrounded by sharks and be surprised by your surroundings constantly.
You will have two different dives, in two very different locations and will be able to see a great variety of species and landscapes.
From garden eels to a massive shark cleaning station with dozens of sharks swimming around you, you might also spot some mantas and eagle rays, or even hammerheads.
It’s not the most famous dive in the Galápagos but for sure you won’t be disappointed. If you have an extra day or you don’t know what to do and diving is your thing make sure to come here!
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Diving in North Seymour and Mosquera: General Details
On this diving tour, due to the strong currents, I would advise you to have at least some experience with currents. They check your level before the dive, in the water. You start in Seymour North island and proceed to the Mosquera Islet nearby.
- Highlights: An eel garden, a sea of starfish, a cleaning station of reef sharks, and with luck golden cownose rays, spotted eagle rays, manta rays, massive pufferfish and hammerhead sharks.
- Duration: 8 hours.
- Boat trip duration: 50 mins (25 minutes each way).
- Starting Time: 7:00h starting at the Macarron Scuba dive center in Puerto Ayora.
- Price: 160-180$ USD.
- Agency/Guide: Macarron Scuba Diver Diving Center
- Gear included: Scuba kit with wetsuits, fins, and all the necessary things.
- Food included: Snacks with drinks in between dives, and Lunch.
Diving in North Seymour and Mosquera: Technical Details
- Dive Type: Drift (in North Seymour) Drift and Wall (in Mosquera).
- Difficulty: Easy (in North Seymour) Moderate (in Mosquera).
- Start: Boat dive.
- Duration: 50-60 minutes.
- Nr. of dives: 2 dives.
- Full Tank: 3000 PSI / 200 Bar
- Currents: Medium-strong currents (in Mosquera).
- Avg. Depth: 18-30 meters (in North Seymour) 10-25 (in Mosquera).
- Surface Interval: 45 minutes (boat rest).
- Visibility: 10-15 meters.
- Water Temp. (ºC): Jan-May: 20-26. June-Dec: 16-20.
- Air Temp. (ºC): Jan-May: 22-31, June-Dec: 19-29.
- Water Temp. (ºF): Jan-May: 68-78,8, June-Dec: 60,8-68.
- Air Temp. (ºF): Jan-May: 72-88, June-Dec: 66-84.
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Diving in North Seymour and Mosquera: Curiosities
Both North and South Seymour Islands were named after the British royal navy officer of the late 18th century, Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour.
The name “Mosquera” comes from the Spanish and it is the name of a flower in the daisy family, the yellow fleabane flower
Apart from scuba-diving tours, you can also go on a land tour to North Seymour island and Mosquera islet, there you will see blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, marine iguanas, and sea lions.
South Seymour island, also called Baltra island is where the main airport of Santa Cruz island, is located.
How to Dive in North Seymour and Mosquera?
To scuba-dive in North Seymour and Mosquera dive sites you must have at least an Open Water certification and you should have some experience with currents. In the Mosquera islet dive, you will need that.
To book it just go to a diving school, I went to Macarron Scuba Diver Diving Center, and they explain it all to you. You must book it at least one day before but I’d advise you to book it a couple of days in advance just in case.
Before the diving day, you’ll need to go to the dive center and test out the gear to find your appropriate size.
What Can i See While Diving in
North Seymour and Mosquera?
So, first of all, you need to be lucky. As in everything sea-related, you don’t control when the animals pass by.
In theory and if you have good visibility, you will see in North Seymour an eel garden, some reef sharks resting on the sandy bottom and morays, and in Mosquera, you will see a reef shark cleaning station, a sea of starfish, and if you’re lucky hammerhead sharks, green turtles, eagle rays, manta rays, golden cownose rays, giant puffer fish, king angelfish, blue and gold snappers, razor surgeonfish and other exotic fish.
For your own safety and for the animals, don’t touch any of the animals or corals as they are all living things and can get damaged if you do so.
What to Bring to the Dive in
North Seymour and Mosquera?
Diving Computer:
Diving Gear:
Clothing & Accessories:
- Tshirt: Breathable Tshirt (Tech or Merino), or a Lycra
- Jacket: Waterproof Jacket
- Shorts: Swimming Clothes
- Shoes: Flip Flops
- Hat: Cap
- Sunglasses
- Dry-fast Towel
- Earth Pak Waterproof Dry Bag
- Change of Clothes
Useful Extras:
- GoPro/Camera
- First-Aid Kit – Extra Sea Sickness Medication if needed
- Sunscreen 50 SPF
- Food / Snacks
- Thermos or Water-filtering Bottle
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My Experience While Diving in
North Seymour and Mosquera
I did this diving tour on my last and 7th day staying on Santa Cruz island, I had been sick with food poisoning for a day and a half and had to cancel other tours but I didn’t want to miss another one so I gave it a try.
I chose the same company as on the Gordon Rocks’s dive cause they were awesome.
After arriving at Maccaron dive center at 7 am we waited for the entire group to be there and went on a taxi van to Itabaca Channel for one hour. At 8 am we hopped on the boat and sailed for 25 minutes until we reached North Seymour island.
Once there we checked the equipment and did our first dive.
We were 4 divers and the guide was again the awesome owner of the school, Juan Carlos. My dive buddy was an American veteran that was into skydiving and scuba diving, and the other two were an Israeli girl and a French guy if I’m not mistaken.
Diving in North Seymour
As we went down we could see the visibility wasn’t the best but still we could see at least 10 meters away from us.
Once we reached the bottom at around 18 meters a hammerhead shark passed next by and up next to the surface two manta rays. What a great sight really they are everywhere around here, you just need to be able to see something.
After that, there was a bit of current and the guide had to hold onto the girl cause she wasn’t able to control her floatability and it was important for we needed to move forward with the current.
We sighted some white-tip reef sharks resting on the sand like in a parking lot and then we saw the best thing about this dive, a garden of eels.
I had seen it before in Lisbon, in the Oceanary but inside an aquarium, there were maybe 20 there inside the glass but here there were at least two hundred.
What a sight and the funny part is when you get closer to take a look they all hide inside like that toy game for kids where you hit the beaver with a hammer Ahah.
After that we saw a moray on the few rocks you find on this dive and some exotic fish and that was it from the North Seymour dive.
Apart from the eels garden, I think the most important thing about this dive was for the guide to check our level and floatability cause in Mosquera up next the current was quite strong.
And you don’t want to be floating away surrounded by dozens of sharks.
Diving in Mosquera
The MVP of this diving day was without a doubt the Mosquera islet dive.
It was hard but worth it. We started the dive and we could already see there were some reef sharks at the bottom.
Once we reached it our guide told us to grab somewhere cause the current was very strong.
As soon as we grabbed the rocks we were surrounded by at least 20 white-tip reef sharks. They were everywhere.
After a while of seeing them going quite next to my face, I started looking around for other attractions, and right there, in front of me, lying very still was the biggest puffer fish I have seen in my life.
That was for me the second coolest thing about this area. A pufferfish usually has around 30 cm in length.
This one’s head was about that size. So I can only imagine if this one would go ballooning the size it would get. I would say in length it should have around 60-70 cm. And later I found another one next by, maybe a family member.
We continued forward after a while and we saw a cute normal-size pufferfish hidden in the sand and then a sea of starfish-like in the snorkel around Bartolomé Island, but darks starfish here.
After this area, the best highlight of this dive happened. A school of golden cow nose rays passed by us and we swam with them for at least 5 minutes, like we were part of the pack. Amazing really, what an experience.
Once we left the group a spotted eagle ray passed by to say hello and we went up to the boat for lunch.
And that’s about it after lunching we left Mosquera back to Itabaca Channel, we watched an amazing sunset and then our taxi drove us to Puerto Ayora town and the diving day was over.
So, to conclude, if you want to dive again and already went to Gordon Rocks this is an amazing option you can choose, you will for sure enjoy it, just remember about the currents.
What about you, have you already scuba-dived in North Seymour and Mosquera? Leave me a comment down here if you have and what was your opinion.
Thanks for reading through and I hope you have fun diving here.
I’ll drop a couple of my other favourite photos of the day down below, enjoy!
Photo Gallery
Diving in North Seymour
Diving in Mosquera
