The word “Galápagos” conjures up many images—giant turtles, sea lions, iguanas, and, of course, the specter of a bearded Charles Darwin, scribbling furiously in a notebook. There’s no reason to believe that the great British naturalist spent any time below the cool Pacific waters 600 miles off Ecuador. Had he done so, he would’ve likely been impressed.
“Before my first trip, I was anticipating the Galápagos on two levels, literally—the birds and iguanas above the water, and the assorted creatures underwater,” began Eric Hanauer. “I was pleasantly surprised by the marine life I encountered. The cast of characters was familiar, similar to what I found in the Revillagijedos and around Cocos in Costa Rica. Plus there is incredible sea lion activity, and the presence of exotic endemics like penguins and marine iguanas.”
The first recorded mention of the nineteen islands and numerous islets that compose the Galápagos was recorded in 1535 by the bishop of Panama, Tomás de Berlanga. The islands seemed so dry and uninhabitable that he didn’t bother to name them, though he did make note of the “galápago” or giant tortoise that he encountered there. For the next 300 years or so, sealers, whalers, and assorted buccaneers used the Galápagos as an occasional base of operations, slaughtering legions of sea turtles for meat. By the time Darwin arrived in 1835, the islands’ only permanent human residents were members of a penal colony established by the Ecuadorian government on the island of Floreana.
Darwin had been away from his native England for nearly four years on the HMS Beagle by the time he reached the Galápagos, collecting specimens and observations. During the five weeks he spent on the islands in 1835, Darwin noted that while the bird and reptile life he encountered on each of the six islands he visited was quite similar, there was some variation in each species. This led him to believe that the animals had adapted over time to the microhabitats of each island. The notion of adaptation or evolution fostered at the Galápagos would be the foundation for The Origin of Species, which was finally published in 1859.
It is the many currents (Counter Equatorial, Humboldt, South Equatorial, and North Equatorial) that intersect around the Galápagos that have created such a diverse and unlikely assemblage of creatures. Scientists believe that the Galápagos were created from volcanic activity on the ocean floor, and that they’ve never been connected to a continent. All of its terrestrial residents arrived on the islands by swimming (seals, dolphins, penguins), floating (tortoises, iguanas, insects, some plants) or flying (birds, seeds floating in air currents) from as far afield as the Caribbean and the Antarctic, and the confluence of currents is the best explanation for their arrival. Once there, the animals were able to adapt and survive, thanks largely to the absence of predators, with the exception of man.
“One should note that diving is not easy at the Galápagos,” Eric continued. “There’s big swells, and you often have a long, bumpy boat ride to the diving site. The water can be cold, and people who have never worn anything thicker than a three-millimeter will have to adjust to the constricting feel and additional weight of a seven-millimeter wet suit. The currents are strong, and the visibility is not pristine. But the rewards of the marine life make the challenges worthwhile. After all, where else do you have the opportunity to swim with penguins, marine iguanas, and Galápagos sharks, all in the same day? It’s like going back to a primeval time.” (Galápagos sharks, incidentally, have a broad but spotty distribution, though they were first identified around the islands at the turn of the century.)
Diving sites in the Galápagos can be divided into two sectors: the south, where most of the islands are clustered; and the north, which means Wolf and Darwin Islands (sometimes called Wenman and Culpepper, respectively). Visitors are allowed to land on the southern islands to partake of the incredible land-based animal encounters offered there; most feel that the diving is somewhat richer around the isolated northern islands, which lie some 150 miles from Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal, Galápagos’s main points of entry. Eric has experienced both. “On my first trip, we stayed in the south. I recall our encounters with schools of golden rays, Galápagos sharks, and some hammerheads. On my second and third trips, we spent more time around Wolf and Darwin. We saw vast schools of hammerheads; at Darwin, I wedged myself into the rocks at one point to anchor myself in the current, so I could watch the hammers swim overhead. The barnacles on the rocks tore up my wetsuit. We also came upon whale sharks on almost every dive.” Some 400 fish species are regularly observed around the Galápagos, including manta, marbled and spotted eagle rays, moray eels, creole fish, Moorish idols, yellow-tailed surgeonfish, and king angelfish. Green turtles, marine iguanas, fur seals, and sea lions fill out the show.
It would be a shame to travel to the Galápagos and only spend time underwater. The islands’ many endemic inhabitants, including land iguanas, lava lizards, Darwin’s finches (thirteen species in all), and blue-footed boobies—not to overlook the world’s northernmost population of penguins and the prehistoric giant tortoises—are habituated to human visitors to the point of being tame. (Island visitation is closely monitored by the Galápagos National Park to protect local fauna yet make the animals accessible to guests.) “Some people visit a diving venue only to check that place and certain species off their lists,” Eric added. “They never see what’s on land. I always try to include land experiences in my travels, especially at a place like the Galápagos.”
While great efforts have been taken by the Ecuadorian government and the international conservation community to preserve the integrity of the Galápagos, Eric sees warning signs. “Ecuador has seen destructive fishing practices, including shark finning, which is a danger signal. Many fishing families are moving to the islands from the mainland, and they are overharvesting lobsters and sea cucumbers. There’s probably too much tourism as well. I don’t know how long it will be before the marine life there seriously deteriorates.”
ERIC HANAUER (www.ehanauer.com) is a widely published writer and photographer specializing in the underwater world. Author of three books (Diving Micronesia; Diving Pioneers: An Oral History of Diving in America; and The Egyptian Red Sea: A Diver’s Guide) as well as nearly 1,000 articles, his work has appeared in posters, magazines, books, videos, and CDs, on subjects ranging from travel to diving history, instruction to equipment. Nearly fifty years of active diving have brought a unique perspective to Eric’s work. In travel writing, he covers the land as well as the underwater features of an area, from the standpoint of the local culture as well as that of the visitor. As an instructor and equipment expert, Eric writes from a background of vast experience. His oral history book reintroduced America’s diving pioneers to an entire new generation. Eric is a retired professor from the Kinesiology Division at California State University, Fullerton. An aquatics specialist, he has trained more than 2,500 scuba students, and introduced the grab start to competitive swimming while coaching in the 1960s. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, and raised in Chicago, Eric was educated in the Chicago public schools, then earned a B.S. in physical education at George Williams College, and an M.S. in physical education at UCLA. Eric lives in San Diego with his wife, Karen Straus, who is also an active diver and underwater photographer.
Getting There: Visitors generally fly to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, and from there, fly to the Galápagos. Quito is served from Miami by LAN Ecuador, Continental, Delta, and American Airlines, among others. TAME (www.tame.com.ec) offers flights to San Cristóbal.
Best Time to Visit: You can dive the Galápagos year round, though the high season is considered November to April, and July and August.
Accommodations: A number of live-aboards serve the Galápagos; Galápagos Adventures (866-626-8272; www.galapagosadventures.com) outlines the many options.
Fiji is especially renowned for its colonies of soft corals.
