Northern Isabela and Fernandina Islands
This morning, those of us who were “early-to-rise” enjoyed a calm sea and countless mobula ray sightings as we navigated along the northern coast of Isabela Island. A small pod of bottle-nose dolphins rode our bow – to our delight! This is a “first” for Islander in Galápagos; I was not even sure dolphins would bow ride on a catamaran, so I was thrilled that they did. As we rounded the western point of Isabela the wind picked up. When we finally spotted a whale, it was difficult to either locate or observe it because the spout was immediately blown away and its fluke prints were lost among the white caps. However, it was probably a Bryde’s whale. This is a medium size baleen whale that feeds on schooling fish and is fairly common around the archipelago. Even if we didn’t ever get a good look at the whale, it was still exciting and reassuring to have one around…
We took a Zodiac ride along the base of the spectacular red and black cliffs of Punta Vicente Roca. From the rubber boats we comfortably watched penguins flitting through the water after tiny fish, sea turtles surfacing for a gulp of air, blue-footed boobies diving and huge marine iguanas feeding in the surf. We saw a noisy group of 6 one-month old fur seal pups; amazing to find so many together as they are usually not very social.
In the afternoon we snorkeled with sea turtles, marine iguanas and brilliant orange harlequin wrasse and then chose between a walk/short Zodiac ride and an hour long Zodiac ride at Punta Espinoza, Fernandina. The walkers had perfect weather. It was a sun dappled afternoon, and they found countless iguanas, sea lions, and flightless cormorants on the lava shores of this amazing island. Endemic Brachycereus cactus (pictured here) which grows right out of the solid black lava, was a surprise and of great interest to the botanists and cactus lovers among us.
I was the Naturalist leading the Zodiac ride and this afternoon I saw something I have not seen before, during all the 26 years that I have worked in Galápagos!
At first we simply could not figure out what we were watching. A large male sea lion was turning tight circles in a shallow bay surrounded by lava rocks. Five frigates hovered and dove above him. The sea lion appeared to be biting his own flank and the frigates dove and pecked at his back. Finally I glimpsed a frigate with a sardine in its beak and then spied another small fish flopping on the sea lion’s back. WOW! I realized what was going on. The sea lion was swimming through a ball of tightly packed sardines and trapping them in the circle of his body, then feeding on them as they swam in panic against him. The frigates were taking advantage – as they always do – of a free meal and grabbed the fish out of the sea lion’s circled body fish-trap. The sea lion didn’t even attempt to scare off the frigates; apparently there was enough food for all. Or maybe, having lived in Galápagos with frigates as neighbors for years, he was just accustomed to sharing with these pirates. In any case, that was one smart sea lion. He fed like this for at least 2 hours; circling around, then folding his head to meet his tail and grabbing the fish against his sides. What an incredibly neat way of fishing! What an incredibly neat show we witnessed! I must repeat something I have said many, many times: you see something new every week, no matter how long you have worked in Galápagos. No naturalist could ever tire of such a magical place!
This morning, those of us who were “early-to-rise” enjoyed a calm sea and countless mobula ray sightings as we navigated along the northern coast of Isabela Island. A small pod of bottle-nose dolphins rode our bow – to our delight! This is a “first” for Islander in Galápagos; I was not even sure dolphins would bow ride on a catamaran, so I was thrilled that they did. As we rounded the western point of Isabela the wind picked up. When we finally spotted a whale, it was difficult to either locate or observe it because the spout was immediately blown away and its fluke prints were lost among the white caps. However, it was probably a Bryde’s whale. This is a medium size baleen whale that feeds on schooling fish and is fairly common around the archipelago. Even if we didn’t ever get a good look at the whale, it was still exciting and reassuring to have one around…
We took a Zodiac ride along the base of the spectacular red and black cliffs of Punta Vicente Roca. From the rubber boats we comfortably watched penguins flitting through the water after tiny fish, sea turtles surfacing for a gulp of air, blue-footed boobies diving and huge marine iguanas feeding in the surf. We saw a noisy group of 6 one-month old fur seal pups; amazing to find so many together as they are usually not very social.
In the afternoon we snorkeled with sea turtles, marine iguanas and brilliant orange harlequin wrasse and then chose between a walk/short Zodiac ride and an hour long Zodiac ride at Punta Espinoza, Fernandina. The walkers had perfect weather. It was a sun dappled afternoon, and they found countless iguanas, sea lions, and flightless cormorants on the lava shores of this amazing island. Endemic Brachycereus cactus (pictured here) which grows right out of the solid black lava, was a surprise and of great interest to the botanists and cactus lovers among us.
I was the Naturalist leading the Zodiac ride and this afternoon I saw something I have not seen before, during all the 26 years that I have worked in Galápagos!
At first we simply could not figure out what we were watching. A large male sea lion was turning tight circles in a shallow bay surrounded by lava rocks. Five frigates hovered and dove above him. The sea lion appeared to be biting his own flank and the frigates dove and pecked at his back. Finally I glimpsed a frigate with a sardine in its beak and then spied another small fish flopping on the sea lion’s back. WOW! I realized what was going on. The sea lion was swimming through a ball of tightly packed sardines and trapping them in the circle of his body, then feeding on them as they swam in panic against him. The frigates were taking advantage – as they always do – of a free meal and grabbed the fish out of the sea lion’s circled body fish-trap. The sea lion didn’t even attempt to scare off the frigates; apparently there was enough food for all. Or maybe, having lived in Galápagos with frigates as neighbors for years, he was just accustomed to sharing with these pirates. In any case, that was one smart sea lion. He fed like this for at least 2 hours; circling around, then folding his head to meet his tail and grabbing the fish against his sides. What an incredibly neat way of fishing! What an incredibly neat show we witnessed! I must repeat something I have said many, many times: you see something new every week, no matter how long you have worked in Galápagos. No naturalist could ever tire of such a magical place!
