Floreana Island
The underwater world is as interesting and as wonderful as the world above the water. Many different creatures populate the sea in the Galapagos: fish, mammals and an incredible amount of marine invertebrates as well.
Champion Islet was amazing today, with beautifully clear water that was rich in life. Four sharks slept at the very bottom, while sea lions played with our guests and a green sea turtle passed us by. But the little things count too, and this couple of white sea urchins well deserve our attention. They were found by one of our guests perched atop a submerged boulder covered with algal tufts, the principal food, along with crustose coralline algae, of this picturesque animal.
This species, Tripneustes depressus, is quite common in this area, and ranges from Southern California to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.
It is hard to believe that these living beings actually move along the bottom or on rock faces. Yet they do walk, using their slender tubular feet, which also serve as feelers to detect changes in their surroundings. Beautiful with their radially symmetrical body and armed with spines, they truly enhance the magnificence of the sea floor.
The underwater world is as interesting and as wonderful as the world above the water. Many different creatures populate the sea in the Galapagos: fish, mammals and an incredible amount of marine invertebrates as well.
Champion Islet was amazing today, with beautifully clear water that was rich in life. Four sharks slept at the very bottom, while sea lions played with our guests and a green sea turtle passed us by. But the little things count too, and this couple of white sea urchins well deserve our attention. They were found by one of our guests perched atop a submerged boulder covered with algal tufts, the principal food, along with crustose coralline algae, of this picturesque animal.
This species, Tripneustes depressus, is quite common in this area, and ranges from Southern California to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.
It is hard to believe that these living beings actually move along the bottom or on rock faces. Yet they do walk, using their slender tubular feet, which also serve as feelers to detect changes in their surroundings. Beautiful with their radially symmetrical body and armed with spines, they truly enhance the magnificence of the sea floor.
