Cabo Pulmo · Mexico · Reef
Los Morros
Rated advanced for swift current rather than for depth.
Area photo: Peter Potrowl · CC BY-SA 4.0
Los Morros is a set of reef patches separated by sand flats full of garden eels, dived between about 9 and 17 metres and averaging around 15. It is rated an advanced dive despite that depth, because cooler water, reduced visibility and swift current all turn up here. Big-eye trevally school over the rock, and mobula and manta rays pass through seasonally.
Also known as El Morro.
Where it is and how deep
23.4377° N, 109.4135° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
Los Morros is built of reef patches separated by clean sand rather than one continuous structure, and the sand between them is carpeted with garden eels. Depths run from about 9 to 17 metres and average around 15, so bottom time is generous and the limit on the dive is the water rather than the gas: current can run swift enough that groups work one patch at a time and stay low against the rock in between.
The fish list is the reason to come. Schools of big-eye trevally hold over the patches, with groupers, snappers, parrotfish and angelfish through the structure and octopus, lobster and moray eels in the holes. Turtles and stingrays work the sand, tuna and sea lions cut past, and mobula rays, manta rays, guitarfish, machetes and green jacks arrive seasonally. Whale sharks and bull sharks are both logged here as possible encounters.
Marine life and season
- Trevally & jacks
- Mobula rays
- Manta rays
- Groupers
- Sea turtles
- Stingrays
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Whale sharks
- Bull sharks
- Seals & sea lions
- Tuna
- 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
- Current can run swift across the patches; groups stay low, work one reef head at a time and finish the dive down-current for the pickup.
- Visibility drops to around 5 metres in the winter months, so stay inside easy reach of the guide and your buddy.
- Water falls to about 20 degrees at the cold end of the year, and that cold is part of why the site is rated advanced: plan exposure protection for the low end of the range, not the average.
Dive videos
Explora Los Morros: Maravillas del Buceo en el Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo · Leonardo Gonzalez on YouTube
The Jacks of Los Morros (1080 HD w/music) · Ken Kurtis on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Is Los Morros a beginner dive?+
No. Although it averages only about 15 metres, the site is rated advanced because of swift current, cooler water and reduced visibility, and it is normally dived by people with experience beyond a basic open-water course.
What is the visibility at Los Morros?+
Divers log monthly averages between about 5 and 20 metres, with the clearest water in late summer and the murkiest in the winter months.
Sources
- Los Morros — SSI MyDiveGuide / Scubago
- Dive Sites at Cabo Pulmo — Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort
In The Logbook
- Where to dive with tiger, bull and white sharksBig animals · 14 min read
- Where to dive with whale sharks, month by monthBig animals · 16 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.
Wreck
A sunken tuna trawler that gathers bull sharks in season.
Reef
Sea lions in 3 to 9 metres, on a rock bottom with no coral.
Similar dives elsewhere
Thirty-two mooring buoys along one spur-and-groove reef
Hammerheads, bull sharks and eagle ray formations on the park's outer edge
A King Neptune statue set down in the late 1970s marks the north end
Sea turtles on the inner coral plate, eagle rays at La Grieta.