Galápagos: Wolf Island – Scuba Diving in the World’s Highest Abundance of Sharks Sanctuary*
“Dutchie and I joined a scuba diving liveaboard (diving cruise) for 7N/8D. The itinerary included seven days of scuba diving across the Galapagos archipelago (Ecuador): Punta Carrion, Wolf Island, Darwin Arch & Island and Cousins Rock”
There are three types of scuba divers; the first one is those who prefer to see the big size marine life such as the sharks, whales, orcas, giant octopus – basically the marine life that you can easily see without too many efforts to search for them. Then the second is those who prefer to see the medium to tiny size marine life that often takes ‘detective skills’ to find them. And finally the third is those who just want to see all sizes of marine life during scuba diving.
I may fall into the third category, although I admit I get more excited about seeing or finding small size marine life like the nudibranch or any tiny marine species. Yet, here I am, at the Wolf Island where the big daddies and mamas of the sea enjoy the protected area. A popular diving destination for the first type of scuba divers.
Galapagos Diving
Average water temperature is 24℃ to 25℃ (around 75 ℉) and we expect to experience choppy sea surface and strong current underwater. The dive plan is in details, such as: do back rolling; go immediately down and wait; stay at one place to see the hammerhead sharks; no chasing and touching animals; how to surface (no deco stop, please); what to handover to the panga boatman and what to do when we separate from the group. Safety is seriously taken care by our diving boat. We get three items to carry as the safety measure during our dives in Wolf and Darwin Islands: SMB, horn and lastly, radio with GPS installed. The radio is connected to the satellite and transmit the SOS warning to the Ecuadorian navy. It is the last option to use after we are missing for 30 minutes from the scuba divers group. Thankfully I don’t have to use any of those items.
We have nine dives in the Wolf Island alone, and always see the schooling of hammerhead sharks; millions of fishes (note: I may exaggerating a bit here, but it feels like they come in millions); dolphins and the fur seals play around. As we are surfacing, we are greeted by tens of boobies birds that fly like the birds, float like a duck and plunge-dive for food. It’s weird to see how they capable of being seabirds on the uninhabited island in the middle of the sea but that’s how the evolution happen. It is about surviving in the tough environment.
May Galapagos survives at the present challenging human politics and environmental situation of this planet.
indahs: dive, travel & photography 
Magical and stunning photos as always, Indah. I loved the photos!
Thank you so much! Happy to share the underwater world with you 😉
Fabulous article along with your amazing captures!
Glad you are feeling better too!
Thank you so much, Nancy! Yesss…finally the motion sickness band worked – it takes a while to kick in 😀
Fascinating and wonderful :-).
Thank you so much, Sherry!
Wonderful photos but sharks? Eeeeeekkk!
Thank you!! These ones seem very shy to humans – I could not even get close to them as they swam away very quickly 😀
Thanks so much, Indah, for taking us underwater in the Galapagos. I liked your description of the various types of divers, different birder types are similar. I enjoyed the photos and all the beautiful fish and coral. So much abundance! And I found it a complete thrill just to see the video of the hammerheads. Being there with this incredibly cool-looking shark must’ve been fantastic.
Truly a pleasure to share the amazing wildlife in Galapagos with you, Jet! I always admire your posts about the birds and wildlife – they are inspiring and eye-opening posts. So many unique animals around us to preserve 🙂
Your photographs are inspiring!! 🙂 Maybe this will be the year that I finally go scuba diving.
Thank you so much! Yay!! Scuba diving is also a great way as therapy for me – it’s relaxing 🙂
You’re welcome! It’s been on my bucket list for awhile. I hadn’t thought of it as therapy but it’s a good point. 🙂
Your photos are stunning! Another great post!
Thank you!
Thank you so much 🙂
Nice post…I think I am also the third kind of diver. I get bored looking out into the blue and not seeing anything but I guess in the Galapagos it’s pretty much a guarantee that you will see something…a lot of something!
Me too – I need to see animals around me 🙂 Yes, Galapagos is a perfect place for the third category – although I wish they have more nudibranch 😀