Floreana Island
Overnight, we sailed about 50 nautical miles and stayed in the southern realm of the Galápagos. Our destination was the fifth largest island in the archipelago: Floreana, or Charles Island, as it was known by the early explorers like Charles Darwin, in whose footsteps we follow. In stark contrast to the low-lying, rocky Española Island with its magnificent cliffs, Floreana is an island dotted with rolling hills and often very green.
This year, however, we have endured somewhat of a drought, and the vegetation is brittle and leafless. These desert-like conditions are directly linked to the chilly waters that bathe the coastlines of the Galápagos during much of the year, cooling off the overlying air which as a consequence does not rise and cause precipitation. These cool waters are also directly responsible for the productivity of the islands, basis of both the terrestrial and marine food chains. Cooler surface waters mix a lot more easily with the cold waters found at depth, and it is here that the nutrients essential to plant growth are found. Coupled with this phenomenon is the upwelling of a large, cold current from the west, called the Cromwell Undercurrent, which brings yet more nutrients to the area. These enable the phytoplankton, primary producers of the seas, to bloom and feed the zooplankton, which in turn feeds the fish, which in turn feed the birds, larger fish, and marine mammals. All we have to do is stroll among the sleeping sea lions and courting seabirds to observe the importance of this food chain; but it becomes even more evident as we don our masks, windows into the underwater world, and brave the cool waters to view the marvels below.
One of the very best sites to do this in the entire archipelago is a small satellite islet just off the coast of Floreana, named Champion. Our entire morning was spent exploring this site, swimming over cliffs and rocks carpeted with hundreds of multi-coloured fish, as well as several sightings of larger creatures such as sea lions and turtles. One of the most abundant and attractive fish species is the razor surgeonfish (closely related to the yellow-tailed surgeonfish), huge schools of which flit from rock to rock, grazing algae and driving the poor territorial damselfish into a frenzy.
Completely exhilarated, we all returned aboard the Polaris for a sumptuous Ecuadorian buffet lunch, before exploring the arid-looking Floreana, with its population of flamingoes and myriad other shore birds.
Overnight, we sailed about 50 nautical miles and stayed in the southern realm of the Galápagos. Our destination was the fifth largest island in the archipelago: Floreana, or Charles Island, as it was known by the early explorers like Charles Darwin, in whose footsteps we follow. In stark contrast to the low-lying, rocky Española Island with its magnificent cliffs, Floreana is an island dotted with rolling hills and often very green.
This year, however, we have endured somewhat of a drought, and the vegetation is brittle and leafless. These desert-like conditions are directly linked to the chilly waters that bathe the coastlines of the Galápagos during much of the year, cooling off the overlying air which as a consequence does not rise and cause precipitation. These cool waters are also directly responsible for the productivity of the islands, basis of both the terrestrial and marine food chains. Cooler surface waters mix a lot more easily with the cold waters found at depth, and it is here that the nutrients essential to plant growth are found. Coupled with this phenomenon is the upwelling of a large, cold current from the west, called the Cromwell Undercurrent, which brings yet more nutrients to the area. These enable the phytoplankton, primary producers of the seas, to bloom and feed the zooplankton, which in turn feeds the fish, which in turn feed the birds, larger fish, and marine mammals. All we have to do is stroll among the sleeping sea lions and courting seabirds to observe the importance of this food chain; but it becomes even more evident as we don our masks, windows into the underwater world, and brave the cool waters to view the marvels below.
One of the very best sites to do this in the entire archipelago is a small satellite islet just off the coast of Floreana, named Champion. Our entire morning was spent exploring this site, swimming over cliffs and rocks carpeted with hundreds of multi-coloured fish, as well as several sightings of larger creatures such as sea lions and turtles. One of the most abundant and attractive fish species is the razor surgeonfish (closely related to the yellow-tailed surgeonfish), huge schools of which flit from rock to rock, grazing algae and driving the poor territorial damselfish into a frenzy.
Completely exhilarated, we all returned aboard the Polaris for a sumptuous Ecuadorian buffet lunch, before exploring the arid-looking Floreana, with its population of flamingoes and myriad other shore birds.
