Northern Isabela & Fernandina Islands
We were up early this morning and on deck to search for dolphins and whales soon after sun rise. It was after breakfast however, and as we were approaching the equator, when Ned yelled out, “there’s a whale!” and I quickly identified them (plural) by the unmistakable tall, jet black dorsal fin of adult male orcas! We were all excited – guests, guides and crew rushed to the bow for a look at these splendid, sleek, black and white, top marine predators. We see these impressive whales rarely in Galápagos; as a matter of fact; we have seen them only twice this year from the decks of the National Geographic Islander, on January 30th and February 6th.
I can with confidence check and relate all sightings of whales and dolphins made on the National Geographic Islander because this data has been recorded by the guides on a data sheet in the staff computer. We are gathering valuable data for the Charles Darwin Research Station. Because we follow the same itinerary week after week, and travel at very nearly the same times and speeds, we are getting a true scientific sample of the marine mammals along our route. Thus far during 2008 we have recorded over 60 whale and dolphin sightings; only three of these have been of orcas! So, we were understandably delighted this morning when two of the medium sized individuals (females and/or juveniles) came right up along our portside bow and swam with us for a few minutes. Everyone got a superb view of these lovely creatures before they dove deep and swam away.
After anchoring at Punta Vicente Roca, Northern Isabela, we embarked all the guests in our four Zodiacs and took a slow cruise along the jagged shoreline at the base of the steep and imposing cliffs of Volcan Ecuador. In my “panga” (the local name for a Zodiac) we gathered more data; this time we did a count of the sea turtles along a transect through this important feeding and resting area. This sea turtle data is invaluable to those studying the turtles in Galápagos. We can unfailingly make a weekly census at no cost – to gather this data without our help each week would be both extremely costly and time consuming!
We saw penguins, cormorants, fur seals, sea lions and many species of sea birds as we motored along. We were surprised to see two hawks, perched high on tuff cliffs, and making the resting noddy terns extremely nervous. Only one of the Zodiacs located a Mola mola this morning; however, later and from the stern facing dining room windows, more of us spotted one of these large sunfish. We had time for a long, cool snorkel outing right before lunch and this was a great success! We swam among sea turtles, saw many of them sleeping on the sandy sea floor, watched penguins flying fast underwater through huge schools of fish, and spied a cormorant paddling with quick kicks of his two feet in unison as he dove deep to search for bottom dwelling fish and octopi. Naturalist Alexandra counted the sea turtles along a snorkel transect line and noted their sex and age (i.e. juvenile or adult) on a piece of plastic tube she carried on her wrist. Wow - an incredible snorkeling experience!
In the cool of the late afternoon we disembarked at Punta Espinoza. Here we found several newborn sea lions, a Galápagos snake, piles of marine iguanas beginning to stack up to keep warm during the cool night and the strange, endemic flightless cormorants. The sun was setting as we made our way across the wet rocks, and by the time we had climbed to the sky deck for a drink, the western sky was pink tinged with orange. This was a lovely finale to a magical day in Las Islas Encantadas.
We were up early this morning and on deck to search for dolphins and whales soon after sun rise. It was after breakfast however, and as we were approaching the equator, when Ned yelled out, “there’s a whale!” and I quickly identified them (plural) by the unmistakable tall, jet black dorsal fin of adult male orcas! We were all excited – guests, guides and crew rushed to the bow for a look at these splendid, sleek, black and white, top marine predators. We see these impressive whales rarely in Galápagos; as a matter of fact; we have seen them only twice this year from the decks of the National Geographic Islander, on January 30th and February 6th.
I can with confidence check and relate all sightings of whales and dolphins made on the National Geographic Islander because this data has been recorded by the guides on a data sheet in the staff computer. We are gathering valuable data for the Charles Darwin Research Station. Because we follow the same itinerary week after week, and travel at very nearly the same times and speeds, we are getting a true scientific sample of the marine mammals along our route. Thus far during 2008 we have recorded over 60 whale and dolphin sightings; only three of these have been of orcas! So, we were understandably delighted this morning when two of the medium sized individuals (females and/or juveniles) came right up along our portside bow and swam with us for a few minutes. Everyone got a superb view of these lovely creatures before they dove deep and swam away.
After anchoring at Punta Vicente Roca, Northern Isabela, we embarked all the guests in our four Zodiacs and took a slow cruise along the jagged shoreline at the base of the steep and imposing cliffs of Volcan Ecuador. In my “panga” (the local name for a Zodiac) we gathered more data; this time we did a count of the sea turtles along a transect through this important feeding and resting area. This sea turtle data is invaluable to those studying the turtles in Galápagos. We can unfailingly make a weekly census at no cost – to gather this data without our help each week would be both extremely costly and time consuming!
We saw penguins, cormorants, fur seals, sea lions and many species of sea birds as we motored along. We were surprised to see two hawks, perched high on tuff cliffs, and making the resting noddy terns extremely nervous. Only one of the Zodiacs located a Mola mola this morning; however, later and from the stern facing dining room windows, more of us spotted one of these large sunfish. We had time for a long, cool snorkel outing right before lunch and this was a great success! We swam among sea turtles, saw many of them sleeping on the sandy sea floor, watched penguins flying fast underwater through huge schools of fish, and spied a cormorant paddling with quick kicks of his two feet in unison as he dove deep to search for bottom dwelling fish and octopi. Naturalist Alexandra counted the sea turtles along a snorkel transect line and noted their sex and age (i.e. juvenile or adult) on a piece of plastic tube she carried on her wrist. Wow - an incredible snorkeling experience!
In the cool of the late afternoon we disembarked at Punta Espinoza. Here we found several newborn sea lions, a Galápagos snake, piles of marine iguanas beginning to stack up to keep warm during the cool night and the strange, endemic flightless cormorants. The sun was setting as we made our way across the wet rocks, and by the time we had climbed to the sky deck for a drink, the western sky was pink tinged with orange. This was a lovely finale to a magical day in Las Islas Encantadas.
