Socorro Aggressor Fails the Test

Liveaboards in the Aggressor fleet are individually owned but are marketed under the banner of the Aggressor franchise. They have to meet the criteria the Aggressor organization sets, but sometimes local owners cut corners or don't reinvest in their vessel's maintenance.

In 2017, the Mexican-owned M/Y Cassiopeia became the Socorro Aggressor. In 2019, we received our first questionable report.

"The boat was fairly shabby. As my first Aggressor experience, I didn't know what to think, but other more experienced travelers told me it was not up to the usual Aggressor standards." In 2020, it stopped running due to the pandemic.

During the last week of November, alarm bells rang. Subscriber Jeff Moore (Sahuarita, AZ) reported that the vessel "is in dire need of some TLC, with rust visible and some wooden flooring desperately needing replacement. Typically, there were air conditioning problems, and, initially, a strong smell of varnish . . . . There was no record of nitrox delivered, nor were divers' max depth and dive time logged . . . . there was no safety briefing on emergency exits, protocols in case of fire, or muster area. Worse, several fire alarms, smoke detectors, and fire extinguishers were said to be not in working order." He also reported watching the divemasters smell the air from the tanks and then empty them due to bad fills."

Larry Speaker, Aggressor Vice President of Operations, had visited the boat three weeks before that departure and said it had been "shut down for several months and undergoing heavy repairs such as replacing hull plating and most of the interior plumbing lines. We were assured that they would be ready."

But it wasn't. And the following week, dive guide Jorge Maldonado became sick underwater from the air in his tank. He was evacuated to the Ranger Stations on Socorro for treatment and later hospitalized in Cabo, with lingering effects. The guests insisted on the boat returning to Cabo.

Aggressor passengers on the November voyage organized themselves and sent a joint letter to the Aggressor Headquarters, detailing their serious complaints. On December 10, Speaker answered, saying that immediately upon receiving the reports from that trip, they had reached out to the Socorro Aggressor and "Key safety concerns that were immediately corrected are:

• Additional smoke detectors were purchased and installed

• Glass was replaced in the main entrance door

• Additional fire extinguishers were purchased

• An additional K-type kitchen fire extinguisher was also purchased

• Safety briefings were identified and reviewed with the staff

"The yacht would not have been permitted to begin the next trip until key safety items were resolved. The yacht shared photos and videos with us to document that work."

However, three days later, December 13, Wayne Brown, Owner and CEO of Aggressor Adventures, posted this on the Aggressor Addicts Facebook page:

"The Socorro Aggressor license has been immediately terminated due to non-compliance with our standard operating procedure. Anyone who has a current trip should have been already contacted by Aggressor Adventures or their travel agent for a choice of a full refund or a voucher. All new vouchers and existing vouchers for the Socorro Aggressor will now be valid towards any Aggressor location worldwide."

Cantamar Liveaboards, a Mexican corporation that owns and operates the MY Cassiopeia responded quickly, trying to shift the blame to the Aggressor Fleet, but admitting they couldn't meet Aggressor standards.

"Effective immediately, the ship formerly known as Socorro Aggressor will recover its original name, M/Y Cassiopeia, and it is programmed to resume trips to Socorro Island and Revillagigedo beginning from December 18, 2022, as trip demand resumes.

"This was a hard decision but a necessary one. The weakening of the U.S. Dollar, rising fuel prices, the cancellation of Guadalupe island trips, and other factors created a perfect storm for us not being able to comply with Aggressor's SOP.

"M/Y Cassiopeia is a full-service liveaboard ship that complies with all Federal, State, and Local laws, along with National Park, Safety, Navigation, and Health certificates and that has received full hull overhaul in July 2022 and it is in good working condition, ready to sail as soon as this week."

Takeaways:

First, Aggressor has many great boats, but we get continuing reader complaints about some and it seems that Headquarters is slow to respond. Before signing up for any Aggressor trip, research it in reader reports and articles at www.undercurrent.org

Secondly, the MY Cassiopeia is not a boat you want to travel on. Anywhere. For this craft, complying with Mexican laws doesn't mean much.