Cabo Pulmo · Mexico · Wreck · Artificial reef
El Vencedor
A sunken tuna trawler that gathers bull sharks in season.
Area photo: Peter Potrowl · CC BY-SA 4.0
El Vencedor is a tuna trawler that hit the Cabo Pulmo reef in the early 1980s and now sits in about 14 metres of water. Sand surrounds the hull, so the structure is the one piece of hard cover on that stretch of bottom, and it collects schooling fish. Bull sharks gather around it in numbers seasonally, which is what most divers come for.
Also known as El Vencedor Wreck.
Where it is and how deep
23.4452° N, 109.4180° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
The wreck lies in about 14 metres, shallow enough that a single tank covers the whole of it without pressing on no-decompression limits. Drop onto the hull, orient on the sand line that runs around it, and work the structure in a loop rather than trying to cover distance: the ship is the dive, and the bottom around it is open sand with nothing to follow.
What the trawler collects is fish. Schools of yellowtail snapper and grunts hold over the plating, groupers sit in the shadowed sections, and Panamic green morays work the gaps in the wreckage. Turtles and stingrays turn up on the sand around it. In season bull sharks patrol the site in large numbers, and tiger sharks are an outside possibility, so keep an eye on the open water as well as on the steel.
The wreck
- Vessel
- El Vencedor
- Type
- Tuna trawler
- Cause
- Ran onto the reef and sank in the early 1980s
- Lies
- In about 14 m, ringed by sand, now grown in as an artificial reef
El Vencedor was a tuna trawler that hit the reef at Cabo Pulmo and sank in the early 1980s. The hull has since grown into an artificial reef standing in open sand, ringed by schooling fish and, in season, by sharks. For divers the wreck reads less as a piece of maritime history than as the one solid structure on that stretch of bottom, which is exactly why the fish stack up on it.
Marine life and season
- Bull sharks
- Tiger sharks
- Sea turtles
- Stingrays
- Groupers
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Cabo Pulmo: Warm water June-November brings bull sharks and large mobula aggregations; winter is cooler and calmer but still diveable.
Know before you go
- Bull sharks gather here in numbers seasonally; stay with the group, keep off the sand and let the animals set the distance rather than following them.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the El Vencedor wreck?+
The wreck sits in about 14 metres (45 feet), inside recreational limits and shallow enough for a long bottom time on a single tank.
Can you see bull sharks at El Vencedor?+
Bull sharks are a seasonal encounter here rather than a year-round one, and when they are in they are reported in large numbers around the wreck. Tiger sharks are listed as a possible sighting.
Sources
- El Vencedor (Wreck) — Scubago
- Dive Sites Cabo Pulmo — Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort
In The Logbook
- Where to dive in every month of the yearTrip planning · 14 min read
More dive sites in Cabo Pulmo
Reef
Reef topography that mirrors the cliffs above, at 11 to 18 metres.
Reef
Cracked shallow reef where big-eye trevally school.
Pinnacle
A rock pinnacle circled in one easy lap, out to 20 m.
Reef
Sea lions in 3 to 9 metres, on a rock bottom with no coral.
Reef
Rated advanced for swift current rather than for depth.
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