Galapagos Diaries :: Photo Of The Day and Natural History Commentary

Wolf Island is one of the two northernmost islands in the Galapagos archipelago. Along with Darwin Island, Isla Wolf is famous for its rich undersea and seabird life. There are no land visits on the island, so the few visitors to the island are almost entirely divers or research scientists. Typical of most islands in the Galapagos, Wolf Island has a historical second name that often appears on nautical charts: Wenman Island.

Wolf Island, with a liveaboard tour boat below sheer seacliffs, is the largest of the islands in the distant northern island group of the Galapagos archipelago, is home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds. Vast schools of sharks and fish inhabit the waters surrounding Wolf Island. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16629   Location: Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Isla Wolf lies 100km north of the central Galapagos islands, and requires about 12-15 hours to reach by boat. The crossing can be rough, but the abundant life and spectacular diving at the island are well worth the effort. Hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) are often seen at Wolf Island, typically in schools of up to hundreds at a time. Fortunate divers will also see whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis), bottlenose dolphins, spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) and Galapagos fur seals (Arctocephalus galapagoensis).

Hammerhead sharks, schooling. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16271   Species: Sphyrna lewini Location: Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Above water the island is an extraordinary bird habitat. Seabirds wheel by the thousands in updrafts above the island throughout the day, with morning and evening fly-ins and fly-outs as the birds depart to forage for food or return to rest at the island. Red-footed boobies (Sula sula), nazca boobies (Sula granti, formerly known as masked boobies), frigates, pelicans and swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcata) dominate the skies above Wolf.

Galapagos shark. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16240   Species: Carcharhinus galapagensis	Coral hawkfish. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 02432   Species: Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus	Great frigatebird, adult male, in flight, carrying twig for nest building, green iridescence of scapular feathers identifying species. Wolf Island. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16708   Species: Fregata minor

Hammerhead sharks, schooling, black and white / grainy. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16256   Species: Sphyrna lewini	Spotted eagle rays. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16333   Species: Aetobatus narinari	Striped sea chub, schooling. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16412   Species: Kyphosus analogous

Darwin’s Arch is a spectacular natural rock arch that rises above the ocean offshore of Darwin Island in the Galapagos Archipelago. (Typical of most islands in the Galapagos, Darwin Island has a second name that often appears on nautical charts: Culpepper Island.)

Darwins Arch, a dramatic 50-foot tall natural lava arch, rises above the ocean a short distance offshore of Darwin Island. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16621   Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Darwin’s Arch is a natural lighthouse of sorts, marking the end of a reef, the point where the reef’s foul shallow area drops off into deeper water. Darwin’s Arch also marks what many believe is the finest scuba dive in the world, a wild underwater place where anything can happen. There are other dives one can make at Darwin Island but “diving the arch” is what visitors to the island want to do, over and over. The reef slope here is a mix of lava and coral that drops to a sand bottom which itself grows deeper as it slopes away from the island and the arch. Strong currents sweep over the reef; at times these currents are strong enough to carry divers away, and the diving here can be uncomfortable or intimidating to a novice diver. It is not uncommon to see enormous schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks here, lined up in the current and numbering in the hundreds or thousands. Schools of Barberfish and small groups of king angelfish congregate above the reef, drawing individual hammerheads down from their schools to hover over the reef to be cleaned of parasite and bits old skin. Other species of sharks are seen here as well, the most notable of which is the enormous whale shark, the largest fish in the sea.

Darwin Island, with the Arch on the right. Darwin Island is the northernmost of the Galapagos Islands and is home to enormous numbers of seabirds. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16622   Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

In 1994 we dove Darwin’s Arch repeatedly over a four-day stretch and had encounters with whale sharks on every single dive. In 1997, during the second year of a particularly strong El Nino cycle, we arrived at Darwin Island to find its underwater haunts almost dead, with no large animals of any kind and very few schools of fish. The water was simply too warm. It was a stark and disappointing contrast to what we had seen just a few years prior. Our 2006 trip offered five days of unbelievable hammerhead schools with literally thousands on each dive. Every time we hopped in the water, we had hammerheads around us for a solid hour, continuously from the moment we entered the water until we were picked up by the panga. We would end our dives at the arch surrounded by huge schools of Pacific creolefish, large enough to block out the sun, which hover in walls 40-50 yards out from the reef. As we reached the surface and began to drift away from the island on the current, hoping our panga drivers would come find us quickly, we were usually visited by large, inquisitive bottlenose dolphins.

Whale shark. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 01520   Species: Rhincodon typus	Hammerhead sharks, schooling, black and white / grainy. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16254   Species: Sphyrna lewini	Bigeye trevally jacks, schooling. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16346   Species: Caranx sexfasciatus

See also: Darwin’s Arch photos

We have posted 575 new images shot on our latest Galapagos Islands diving trip, a 15-day run on the liveaboard M/V Sky Dancer. All the underwater material was shot with Canon 5D digital camera in a Sea and Sea housing with a 24mm f/1.4 lens, and the topside material was shot with a Canon 1Ds Mark II camera with 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. We had phenomenal encounters with schools of hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini), literally by the hundreds and thousands on nearly all dives at Wolf and Darwin, not to mention good luck with Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis), Galapagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus) and brief looks at marine iguanas underwater. Diving in the central islands was OK, not great, although we did have good fish displays at Cousins and clean water and sunlight at Gordon Rocks.

Scalloped hammerhead shark. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16246   Species: Sphyrna lewini Location: Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Galapagos shark. Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16239   Species: Carcharhinus galapagensis Location: Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Hammerhead sharks, schooling, black and white / grainy. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16254   Species: Sphyrna lewini Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Galapagos photos (July 2006)
Galapagos photos (all trips: 1996, 1998, 2006)

The Galapagos tortoise, Geochelone spp., an endemic species of the Galapagos islands, is thought to have arrived in the Galapagos archipelago on rafts of debris. As it became distributed throughout the islands, it evolved into 14 distinct species of which 11 are still in existence and are endangered. In some species of Galapagos tortoise the shell is distinctly shaped (e.g., saddle-backed, domed) depending on whether the food sources require a head-raised or head-lowered posture during feeding. Galapagos tortoises can weigh up to 600 lbs with a shell five feet across, and live up to 150 years. For many years, sailors visiting the Galapagos islands would collect Galapagos tortoises and store them aboard ship, since the tortoises could live for months without food or water and would constitute a good source of meat for long voyages. It is thought that perhaps 200,000 tortoises perished this way.

Galapagos tortoise, Santa Cruz Island species, highlands of Santa Cruz island. Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16481   Species: Geochelone nigra	Galapagos tortoise, Santa Cruz Island species, highlands of Santa Cruz island. Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16480   Species: Geochelone nigra	Galapagos tortoise, Santa Cruz Island species, highlands of Santa Cruz island. Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 16484   Species: Geochelone nigra

These free-ranging, wild Galapagos tortoises were photographed in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island (Indefatigable).

Keywords: Galapagos Islands, Galapagos tortoise, Geochelone spp., endemic, endangered / threatened.

The Galapagos Islands, an Ecuadorian archipelago straddling the equator in the Eastern Pacific, is a remarkable underwater paradise. The central and southern islands hold a wealth of temperate as well as tropical marine creatures due to the mixing of currents there. However, it is the northern islands of Darwin and Wolf that divers typically look forward to the most on a Galapagos dive trip. These two islands, along with the smaller Roca Redonda, are the best places in the Galapagos – and indeed one of the best places in the world – to encounter whale sharks. On our first dive at Darwin in 1996 the group had left me behind, riding the current back to the anchorage, while I spent my air exploring the area where we were dropped at Darwin’s Arch. I met up with a young whale shark who happened along and allowed me to swim alongside him for 20 minutes taking photos. Eventually the shark and I caught up with the rest of the dive group, and as each diver noticed us he would swim over and join. Eventually everyone got a good look at the huge shark.

Whale shark. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 01520   Species: Rhincodon typus Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

During our several visits to Darwin Island (we’ve made three trips there in ‘96, ‘98 and ‘06), we have dove at the Arch repeatedly. In 1996 our group saw a whale shark on every dive there including a final dive at the arch was highlighted by a visit from an enormous whale shark, probably 40 feet or more in length:

Whale shark. Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Image: 01503   Species: Rhincodon typus Location: Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Keywords: whale shark photo, Galapagos, Rhincodon typus, Darwin Island, underwater.