Underwater with the Sardine Run at Magdalena Bay with Brandi Mueller [VIDEO]

Featuring Brandi Mueller

Every year, from November to December, Magdalena Bay explodes with non-stop action as the annual sardine run kicks off. This natural phenomenon draws an incredible array of marine life, including marlins, sea lions, whales, and seabirds, all on the hunt for sardine and mackerel. Join Ikelite Ambassador Brandi Mueller as she shares her unforgettable week of chasing bait balls, navigating the chaos, and capturing stunning underwater images during this epic adventure.

I’m Brandi Mueller and I am a Boat Captain and a Scuba Instructor and I've been shooting photos for many many years. I'm an Ikelite ambassador, and I just got back from Magdalena Bay, Mexico to witness the sardines and bait balls and all the incredible big animals that hang out in that area.

November and December is a great time to witness sardine and mackerel bait balls that attract all sorts of large life, including marlins, sometimes mahi-mahi and everything else that feeds on them. So there's dolphins, there's birds piling in from the top. And it's a great place for underwater photographers to capture these moments underwater.

It was nonstop from the second we got out on the boat until it was time to go back. There was always marine life and action happening everywhere.

You never know what's going to happen, every morning I was waking up just wondering what we were going to see, what we were going to be able to photograph. It was absolutely incredible to jump off the boat and below us have a little group of sardines and many, many marlin chasing the sardines. There would be sea lions trying to eat the sardines. Sometimes dolphins would come in. It’s a very special opportunity to see these big game fish that you normally don't get to see underwater and take photos of them.

Top side, we saw humpback whales everywhere and we had some very close encounters where the humpback swam very close to the boat. We saw breaching activity, we saw pec slapping.

There was also birds. We would have frigate birds diving and it was actually sometimes the frigate birds that we were following to try to find the bait balls. Pelicans were also feeding on the fish as well. So we saw pelicans in the water and it was just incredible to witness so much stuff all the time.

It was nonstop from the second we got out on the boat until it was time to go back. There was always marine life and action happening everywhere.

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Ambassador Brandi Mueller has been nursing an addiction to WWII wrecks for years now. She fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a Marine Biologist, then set off to travel the world exploring and teaching underwater photography.  She published The Airplane Graveyard in 2018 documenting the history of wrecks photographed during her years in Kwajalein Atoll. She moved on to captain the MV Truk Odyssey in 2019 and we're never quite sure where she'll turn up next. Read more...