Genovesa Island
I felt as if today we had been invited to a party, a celebration of life on Genovesa Island. It wasn’t only the birds, but the plants and fish. However, the amazing hosts of this meeting were marine mammals, dolphins and whales all together in a feeding frenzy that covered several square metres. Marine iguanas were the only representatives from the reptilian group, as Genovesa lacks any other reptiles.
We walked among swallow-tailed gulls and red-footed boobies. We sunbathed next to male frigate birds in full courtship display, and we snorkeled and kayaked in clear ocean that revealed to us the rich underwater life of the inside of this volcanic caldera, Darwin Bay, in Genovesa Island.
The best was Zodiac riding through pods of bottlenose dolphins and false killer whales. There were at least 200 marine mammals in the area. At the beginning we had our doubts about the species. We were certain that they were a kind of “black fish,” which is the way whalers used to call certain toothed cetaceans that share several characteristics: gregarious by nature and dark body color.. They looked larger than melon headed whales (some seemed 16 feet long), and they were slimmer and darker than any female killer whale, with more energetic behaviour. As we got the chance to be so close, we were able to identify their unique “elbows” on pectoral flippers, so with no doubt we concluded it was a pod of at least 70 false killer whales. These creatures are generally considered more closely related to dolphins and are usually included in the dolphin family. However, they are unlike most dolphins in appearance, and several authorities classify them separately.
To make it easier, we’ll say we saw cetaceans, and many. We were a fortunate group of humans that happened to be at the right time and place with a wonderful pod of mysterious mammals from the deep.
I felt as if today we had been invited to a party, a celebration of life on Genovesa Island. It wasn’t only the birds, but the plants and fish. However, the amazing hosts of this meeting were marine mammals, dolphins and whales all together in a feeding frenzy that covered several square metres. Marine iguanas were the only representatives from the reptilian group, as Genovesa lacks any other reptiles.
We walked among swallow-tailed gulls and red-footed boobies. We sunbathed next to male frigate birds in full courtship display, and we snorkeled and kayaked in clear ocean that revealed to us the rich underwater life of the inside of this volcanic caldera, Darwin Bay, in Genovesa Island.
The best was Zodiac riding through pods of bottlenose dolphins and false killer whales. There were at least 200 marine mammals in the area. At the beginning we had our doubts about the species. We were certain that they were a kind of “black fish,” which is the way whalers used to call certain toothed cetaceans that share several characteristics: gregarious by nature and dark body color.. They looked larger than melon headed whales (some seemed 16 feet long), and they were slimmer and darker than any female killer whale, with more energetic behaviour. As we got the chance to be so close, we were able to identify their unique “elbows” on pectoral flippers, so with no doubt we concluded it was a pod of at least 70 false killer whales. These creatures are generally considered more closely related to dolphins and are usually included in the dolphin family. However, they are unlike most dolphins in appearance, and several authorities classify them separately.
To make it easier, we’ll say we saw cetaceans, and many. We were a fortunate group of humans that happened to be at the right time and place with a wonderful pod of mysterious mammals from the deep.
