Floreana Island
One experience our guests enjoy on this trip is exploring the marine ecosystems of the Archipelago. Today we had a fantastic time snorkeling! We spent more than an hour swimming among large schools of tropical fish, several sharks, and sea stars and, of course, sea lions that played with us continuously.
This picture shows the endemic red sun star. Sea stars are the prima donnas of the echinoderms, and are familiar to many people as beautifully symmetrical symbols of the marine world. There are many species in Galapagos but this one, rarely seen now, was common before the 1982-83 El Niño event. The red sun star has 32 to 40 rays with only 25 % of each ray free; the remaining 75 % of the appendage is fused to adjacent rays. They feed on barnacles and other sessile invertebrates.
One experience our guests enjoy on this trip is exploring the marine ecosystems of the Archipelago. Today we had a fantastic time snorkeling! We spent more than an hour swimming among large schools of tropical fish, several sharks, and sea stars and, of course, sea lions that played with us continuously.
This picture shows the endemic red sun star. Sea stars are the prima donnas of the echinoderms, and are familiar to many people as beautifully symmetrical symbols of the marine world. There are many species in Galapagos but this one, rarely seen now, was common before the 1982-83 El Niño event. The red sun star has 32 to 40 rays with only 25 % of each ray free; the remaining 75 % of the appendage is fused to adjacent rays. They feed on barnacles and other sessile invertebrates.
