News
The magical Galapagos Islands
Our Galapagos adventure started from the easternmost island of San Cristobal. Divers had flown in from all over the world and met and chatted as we gathered on the quayside at Puerto Banquerizo Moreno. Whilst we waited we were entertained by the sea lions sleeping all over the sea wall and around the car parks and bus stop benches!
We joined the Humboldt Explorer via zodiacs and were shown to our cabins and briefed about our trip. During the afternoon we made a nearby check dive just to make sure our buoyancy was OK.
We travelled to the island of Santa Cruz overnight and made two morning dives at Punta Carrion where we saw our first hammerhead shark and lots of green turtles and southern stingrays, plus all the classic East Pacific reef fish and some large bumphead parrotfish.
We had an afternoon excursion to North Seymour island to see the blue-footed boobies and nesting frigate birds. The views across to the nearby small islands were beautiful and the photographers were busy capturing the large monitor lizards lumbering around. It was very hot, but it was a very worthwhile excursion.
Wolf Island
After an overnight crossing we arrived at Wolf Island. Along with Darwin, these remote tiny northern islands provide the signature Galapagos dives. We made several dives alternating between Landslide and Shark Bay sites where we saw lots of hammerhead and Galapagos sharks plus schools of large spotted eagle rays, yellowfin tunas, huge green turtles with steel pompano entourages and walls of Pacific creole fish, large trevallies, etc.
The stars here are the sharks and there was just never enough time during each dive spent around 28m to see the sharks meandering up the rock faces to visit the cleaning stations. The slightly-higher-than-normal temperatures kept conditions for the divers comfortable but meant that the sharks were a little deeper and we were eeking out our no-deco times, even on 32% nitrox.
Darwin Island
We moved onto Darwin island and were offered 10 dives there over 2 1/2 days. We had three whale sharks of various sizes visit the divers, including a small one which swam around the liveaboard several times and had us rushing around the deck to see it. We decided not to snorkel because there were a lot of frisky silky sharks around the boat which can really intimidate snorkelers! The scuba-diving encounters with the whale sharks were special. These were big sharks and it was hard to keep up with them as they swam around. There were both males and females sighted, which is unusual.
Some lucky divers saw a tiger shark. There were also chunky black tip sharks, many turtles, a sea snake, wahoo, scorpionfish etc. You really can see just about anything at these amazing remote sites.
We spent another day at Wolf on our return journey with more shark action and accompanied on the zodiacs by a large pod of dolphins passing through.
Cabo Douglas and Cabo Marshall
After another overnight travel we arrived at Fernandina to visit Cabo Douglas and see the marine iguanas. A volcano on the nearby island of Isabela was erupting and the sight of the lava and the dust cloud in the early morning light was impressive. We managed to see the marine iguanas and the strange red-lipped batfish but the swell made diving conditions rather tricky.
A diving cormorant was a remarkable sight! Such a good swimmer, deeper than the divers watching the iguanas!
We travelled on to Cabo Marshall on the east side of Isabela. We were extremely lucky and saw several giant mantas plus small schools of mobulas (M. tarapacana), some large black tip sharks and an amazing school of barracudas which posed for photos. The visibility at this site was outstanding, and the steep wall was just amazing: you really felt that anything might pass by.
We made another dive at a site a little further along from Cabo Marshall where the wall was even more spectacular, but we were not so lucky with the creatures (although we did see white tip sharks and yellowfin tunas).
We had a memorable snorkel with penguins too – they move so fast! They are such good divers and were really curious of us poking our cameras at them and quickly came over to test our cameras out with their beaks. I promise we were back pedalling and they came after us. Just so endearing.
Bartholeme
We awoke next morning next to the famous rock formation (think Master and Commander) at Bartholeme. We made two dives and saw so many turtles, it was incredible. There was some really pretty areas of reef with beautiful seafans and corals, tantalising tropical reef fish like longnose and pixie hawkfish, cloud morays, scorpionfish, snake eels, etc.
Santa Cruz
No visit to Galapagos is complete without a visit to see the giant tortoises and this was done back at Santa Cruz island during an afternoon/evening excursion which included a visit to Puerto Ayora for some shopping, lots of cocktails and dinner. We made our final journey back to San Cristobal and had a morning in the town before heading back to the airport and onward connections.
It was an incredible trip, with so many memories of so many creatures and lots of new friends made among the divers.
Photos: Matt Kitchen and Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler
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Experience Galapagos For Yourself
Here are the dates:
17 Jul – 24 Jul 2017 * 7 nights aboard Galapagos Master from £3,587pp
25 Jun – 02 Jul 2018 * 7 nights aboard Galapagos Master from £3,696pp
03 Sep – 10 Sep 2018 * 7 nights aboard Galapagos Master from £3,696pp
Prices include transfer between San Cristobal airport/local hotel and M/V Galapagos Master on days of embarkation and 7 nights aboard the Galapagos Master sharing a twin/double cabin, all meals, soft drinks, diving and land visits.
For more information or to book, contact the Scuba Tours Worldwide team now by calling +44 (0)1284 748010, email sales@scubascuba.com or visit www.scubascuba.com.
For more specials and exclusive tours from Scuba Tours Worldwide, visit www.scubascuba.com/specials/exclusive-tours.
Gear News
Introducing the Aqua-Trek Evo Drysuit from BARE
This lightweight Aqua-Trek Evo drysuit from BARE is patterned after the flagship X-Mission Evolution using the company’s exclusively engineered Cordura® Nylon Oxford 4-Layer fabric for a durable and breathable design. The Aqua-Trek Evo is ready for wherever your adventure takes you.
FEATURES AND BENEFITS
- Lighter weight breathable material that offers enhanced flexibility over current butyl trilaminate
- Lightweight low-profile plastic dry zipper
- 2mm nylon/smoothskin “Smart Collar” with vented neck drain provides an improved seal with the BARE dry hood
- Low-profile valves Lightweight low-profile plastic dry zipper and offset protected zipper flap to avoid contact between dry zipper and outer flap
- Anatomically shaped torso, arms and legs
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- Flexible double-taped reinforcement at “critical wear” seam points for added durability
- Bellow Pocket with D-ring and drain grommets on each thigh
- Field replaceable 4-point suspenders and crotch strap
- Tech dry boots installed
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Material:
- Exclusively engineered and durable Cordura® Nylon Oxford 4-Layer fabric
- Lighter weight, breathable material that offers enhanced flexibility, abrasion and puncture resistance
Find out more about BARE products at www.baresports.com.
Sea & Sea is the home of BARE and other Huish Outdoors diving brands in the UK.
Blogs
Reef-World marks two decades of marine conservation: strengthening impact amid coral reef threats
Empowering ocean stakeholders to tackle future challenges and ensure the survival of coral reefs and humanity
2024 marks the 20th Anniversary of The Reef-World Foundation’s tireless efforts for global coral reef conservation. The UK charity is the international coordinator of the UN Environment Programme’s Green Fins initiative, known as the leading voice in sustainable marine tourism. Today, Reef-World released its 2023-2024 Impact Report outlining a year of substantive growth and impact in its marine conservation programmes.
Impact Report Highlights:
- Impressive improvements in environmental behaviours to protect coral reefs by the marine tourism industry as the global participation of Green Fins increases.
- Continued capacity building for government and NGO staff to effectively manage marine tourism activities in Asia, Caribbean and Red Sea regions.
- For the first time in Green Fins’ 20-year history, tourism operators have achieved ‘Best Environmental Performer’ status by demonstrating the lowest possible environmental impact in their environmental assessments. In 2024, three dive operators achieved this challenging milestone.
- Significant increases in global participation of Reef-World’s innovative digital conservation tools.
- 138 Green Fins dive operator members achieved the strict threshold for PADI Eco Center recognition.
- Developed four new educational materials and translated two into 16 languages to support the marine tourism industry in achieving sustainability targets.
- Establishing a new Reef-World Development strategy and recruiting new roles – Development and Programmes Managers.
- Reef-World’s board welcomes new Chair and Trustees strengthening organisational leadership.
Reef-World started as a one-person mission to inspire and empower communities to act in conserving and sustainably developing coral reefs and related ecosystems. Today, the team of 12 continues to meet this mission by inspiring and empowering the global marine tourism community to be exemplary sustainability leaders by using the Green Fins guidelines and tools to simultaneously use and protect the world’s precious reefs.
In April 2024, the fourth global coral reef bleaching event was confirmed. Reef-World’s work has never been more urgent as the marine environment, and the benefits they provide humanity, continue to be eroded by global threats. The reduction of local threats, like those from the marine tourism industry, is an essential step to ensuring a future where coral reefs survive and continue to support the millions of people who depend on their ecosystem benefits. Reef-World’s work buys time for coral reefs and related ecosystems to be resilient to the impacts of global threats.
“Right now our corals are facing the greatest fight of their existence as the terrifying predictions of the steps towards their complete extinction are starting to come true. But all is not lost, reefs are resilient and they have existed on this planet for millions of years. We must take action now, to buy time for reefs by reducing threats facing them and allowing them to react and adjust to the changing environment they need to survive in.” – Chloe Harvey, Executive Director
Looking Forwards:
Like coral reefs, the Reef-World team needs to be resilient in the face of the complex challenges of the conservation sector. Reef-World has invested significantly in developing a Culture of Care to ensure the well-being of its team on a daily basis, continuing to be an exemplary employer to enable its team to best achieve the mission for coral reef conservation.
With the foundations of a Culture of Care and organisational development laid, Reef-World is emerging from the end of a natural organisation life cycle, that brings the challenges of growth and scale, stronger than ever. With a new strategy in place to generate much needed resources, Reef-World is excited for the opportunities to leap forward, continue to scale our impact and lean into new innovations and untapped opportunities for marine conservation.
We continually strive to become a forward-thinking organisation that delivers on our goals and commitments to our stakeholders with fresh approaches and not being afraid of steering away from a “normal approach.” This approach is not only applied to our programmes of work but also internally and carries over to our Culture of Care for our team.” — JJ Harvey, Operations Director
The Reef-World Foundation is immensely grateful for the continued support of its grant funders: UN Environment Programme, IUCN’s Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility, Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, PADI Aware Foundation, and World Nomads Footprints Program.
Reef-World would also like to express its gratitude to international partners whose vital support has resulted in significant tangible benefits for our work and mission: PADI; Professional SCUBA Schools International (PSS); Explorer Ventures; 1% for the Planet; ZuBlu; Snorkel Venture, GSTC; Dive O’Clock; Seven Dragons; DiveAssure and Eco Beach, without whom these achievements would not be possible.
The full 2023–2024 Annual Impact Report is available on Reef-World’s website.
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