Isabela and Fernandina Islands
A perfect day on the western side of the archipelago started at sunrise. The Polaris circumnavigated “Roca Redonda,” the peak of an enormous underwater mountain. The aerial part of the rock is no more than a 40 feet high and no bigger than a soccer field, but is home for enormous amounts of Audubon’s shearwaters and storm petrels which literally blacken the air in its vicinity, we also saw a few Nazca boobies, both juveniles and adults. A strong current coming from the north created an eddy, known as the “bend-o-matic” by the scuba divers who happen to visit this world class dive site. The place is definitively not for rookies, and if you have the experience and the stamina you could be rewarded with schooling hammerhead sharks, Galápagos sharks, an enormous school of pacific barracuda and the occasional whale shark. “Roca Redonda” features also underwater fumaroles, sulphur gas that escapes from the rocks and sand covering all that area of the bottom with grey coloured filamentous bacteria that thrives in such unique environment.
Later on during the Zodiac ride we found large marine iguanas feeding in the intertidal zone, dozens of sea turtles grazing on the algae covering the bottom around Punta Vicente Roca in the north-west side of Isabela, right below the equator line. We also spotted our first penguins and flightless cormorants. On our way back to Polaris, we got a radio call from the ship that informed us about the presence of some whales nearby. We motored slowly in the direction where the spouts had been sighted last and waited. A few minutes later we saw, no more than 50 yards away, a couple of Bryde’s whales, which gave us the gift of their company for the next 45 minutes.
That afternoon we disembarked at Punta Espinoza after a short zodiac ride and, we saw the largest concentration of flightless cormorants I have ever seen. There were at least 25 birds nesting and resting on the coast. If you consider that the total population of flightless cormorants in the entire planet is only 2,500 individuals, finding 1% of the entire population in one single place is not bad. What a day!
A perfect day on the western side of the archipelago started at sunrise. The Polaris circumnavigated “Roca Redonda,” the peak of an enormous underwater mountain. The aerial part of the rock is no more than a 40 feet high and no bigger than a soccer field, but is home for enormous amounts of Audubon’s shearwaters and storm petrels which literally blacken the air in its vicinity, we also saw a few Nazca boobies, both juveniles and adults. A strong current coming from the north created an eddy, known as the “bend-o-matic” by the scuba divers who happen to visit this world class dive site. The place is definitively not for rookies, and if you have the experience and the stamina you could be rewarded with schooling hammerhead sharks, Galápagos sharks, an enormous school of pacific barracuda and the occasional whale shark. “Roca Redonda” features also underwater fumaroles, sulphur gas that escapes from the rocks and sand covering all that area of the bottom with grey coloured filamentous bacteria that thrives in such unique environment.
Later on during the Zodiac ride we found large marine iguanas feeding in the intertidal zone, dozens of sea turtles grazing on the algae covering the bottom around Punta Vicente Roca in the north-west side of Isabela, right below the equator line. We also spotted our first penguins and flightless cormorants. On our way back to Polaris, we got a radio call from the ship that informed us about the presence of some whales nearby. We motored slowly in the direction where the spouts had been sighted last and waited. A few minutes later we saw, no more than 50 yards away, a couple of Bryde’s whales, which gave us the gift of their company for the next 45 minutes.
That afternoon we disembarked at Punta Espinoza after a short zodiac ride and, we saw the largest concentration of flightless cormorants I have ever seen. There were at least 25 birds nesting and resting on the coast. If you consider that the total population of flightless cormorants in the entire planet is only 2,500 individuals, finding 1% of the entire population in one single place is not bad. What a day!
