Posts Tagged ‘Wolf Island’

Heading South

Monday, June 11th, 2012

June 10, 2012

This weekend marked the halfway point of the Galapagos expedition, both in time and in territory. After a week at Marchena, Darwin and Wolf, the latter two far to the north of the main group of islands, the ship will swing through a rough counterclockwise circle through the southern and western islands. We’ll stop at San Cristobal, Floreana and Isabela, and eventually circle back to Baltra over the coming week.

Saturday saw a few arrivals and departures, along with two dives in the Itibaca Canal between Baltra and Santa Cruz and an afternoon wall dive at Daphne Minor, a tiny islet north of Baltra, which was livened up by a few playful, curious sea lions. On Sunday morning, the Golden Shadow pulled up anchor and headed southwest for San Cristobal, the easternmost island in the Galapagos and home to the provincial capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.

Two sea lions pose for a picture at Daphne Minor

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Seeing Pink Spots

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

June 4, 2012

When we entered the water for our first research dive at Wolf island, the first thing we saw were thousands upon thousands of fish. The fish were so numerous it made seeing the bottom difficult. Underneath the clouds of fish the dominant species of coral was Porites lobata, a lobed pore coral. This species forms massive, helmet-shaped or hemispherical colonies that can exceed 3 m in diameter and 2 m high.

Thick schools of fish

Thick schools of fish

This long-lived coral is slow growing  (1-2 cm/year), but is generally more resistant to diseases and bleaching than other corals.  It recovered fairly quickly from two severe El Niño events (1982-1983 and 1997-1998) and it is the dominant species around both Wolf and Darwin Islands.

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