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Next month, filmmaker RA Beattie and a group of adventurous anglers are setting out on a once-in-a-lifetime voyage to one of the most remote reef systems in the Western Hemisphere. Five atolls, known as Alacranes Reef, are located 100 kilometers due north of Progreso, in the Gulf of Mexico:
The reef complex is 27 km (17 miles) long and 20 km (13 miles) wide with an area of some 245 square km (153 square miles). Alacrán is an emergent platform type reef that forms part of a group known as the Campeche Bank Reefs, because they are located along the outer shelf of the Campeche Bank. It is the largest reef in the entire southern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the most northerly in location. It has five vegetated islands associated with it, Isla Desterrada, Desertora, Pérez, Chica and Pájaros. There are no ferries or regularly scheduled transportation to this reef. It has been said that the trip is not for the weak of heart. There are no installations for receiving people, so visitors MUST take your own water, food, tents, etc. And once there, have to be careful to avoid injury all costs, as there are no doctors, hospitals, etc. and it takes many hours to reach the mainland.
Aside from Beattie, the crew includes fishing guides—Mike Dawes of WorldCast Anglers; Capt. Bryan “Bear” Holeman of Key West Angling; Jose Enrique Ucan Briceno of Ascention Bay; and Alejandro “Sand Flea” Vega of The Tarpon Club on Isla Holbox—as well as Orvis CEO Perk Perkins. Having spent a sabbatical year with his black lab sailing a 46-foot catamaran, with a bonefish skiff, around the flats of the Caribbean from Honduras to the Bahamas, Perk will rendezvous with the crew at Scorpion Reef.
This is going to be a very cool expedition that is sure to produce incredible video footage, great photography, and some wild stories. Best of all, you can follow along at the Scorpion Expedition website. There’s some cool content already on the blog, so check it out.