DiveCareDare

With over 1000 juvenile tortoises, the temporary breeding stock are doing their bit to save several species on Isabela Island, Galapagos, Ecuador.

So worth the two hours on a fast boat to visit from Santa Cruz on return from wolf and Darwin Islands.

Wild life like flamingos, penguins, large marine iguanas and a healthy number of playful sea lion pups are walking distance from the pier.

Highly recommended despite being the only tourist in my small group who was not fluent in Spanish.

5K plays for a reel!!!
Unreal!!
Same post on Facebook is lucky to have 100 plays.

Whitetip sharks have a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lifestyle.

During the day they are pretty chilled and behave like the huggy bears of the shark world.

At night they are a finely tuned foraging machine thgat can muscle into fragile rock and coral fromations to get at parrotfish and other species that seek security in their mucus cocoons and the protection of the reef structures.

To be witness to such unrelenting predatory behavious belies this morning dive scene of peace and tranquility.

Note that the second shark has a cleaner fish exit its mouth while it was still open.

There are moments in life that standout, never to be forgotten.

This is one of those moments.

Our WHALE SHARK team of 8 divers were arriving at the Darwin Pillars (aka Darwin Arch before it collapsed) when a juvenile whale shark came along our starboard side. The surprise to whale shark researcher, Dr. Simon J Pierce, is palpable as I scrambled to activate my GoPro on a stick.

With the wisdom of hindsight, we could all have managed our surprise better, but at least we have the evidence that we had an experience that was totally unexpected.

Had the GoPro been facing the other way, we might have been able to record an identification profile that is usually standardised from the left side when possible.

The timing and purpose of this trip to Galapagos Islands, and to Wolf and Darwin Islands in particular, was to be coincidental with a high probability of seeing some of the worlds largest fish - whale sharks.

How our guide saw this sub adult swimming at about 36 metres in the deep blue is beyond me.

I held back from posting because I was hoping to eclipse both the size, POV and visibility.

Since this encounter happened we chanced to have a baby whale shark come alongside our dive boat, but our persistence and patience with the last of six dives off Darwin Island has yet to be rewarded. So this could be all that is on offer says the eternal optimist a half hour ahead of our last dive off Darwin Island.