Galapagos Diving - Wolf & Darwin
The northern most islands in the archipelago, Darwin and Wolf rank among the best and most desired dive sites in the world. Due fragile environment the national park prohibits land visits. It's distance from the other islands means it is only visited by live-aboard cruises and those who are lucky enough to travel to this area have come to dive. As you approach the islands you will see thousands of seabirds crowd the precipitous cliffs and brushy heights. Strong currents are the prevail, what lies beneath the water makes it well worth the trip. If you position yourself against a rock you can watch vast schools of every kind of fish drift past. This site is has an incredible presence of various marine life including turtles, rays, mantas, dolphins, morays, schools of jacks and invertebrates. What makes it truly incredible are the sharks - hammerheads, Galapagos sharks, silkies and the largest fish of all the Whale Shark.
Wolf
A 14 hour overnight voyage brings you to Wolf Island. Exposed to waves, surges, strong shifting currents Wolf is for experienced divers only. With a number of protected anchorages a variety of dive sites and drift dives with large animals it's no wonder this area has topped the list of favorite sites. Due to the warmer waters here you will find many fish found nowhere else including white mouth and zebra morays, trumpetfish, cornetfish, schools of jacks, rainbow runners, barracudas, tuna, bigeye jacks, blue-spotted jacks, wahoo, bacalao, salemas, yellowfin surgeonfish and marine turtles. Large pelagic fishes like whale sharks, Galapagos sharks, black-blotched stingrays, spotted eagle rays have also been seen here. Hammerheads swim in a never ending parade across the reef as from the shallower waters towards the deep.
Depending on conditions Wolf offers excellent night dives. This is a great time for macros as you’ll get very close-up to lobsters, puffers, creolefish and some unusual crabs and anemones and the red-lipped batfish.
Darwin
Named for the island's most famous visitor Darwin it is 4 hours north of Wolf. As the furthest north of the islands the Humboldt Current has little effect here and the waters are warmer than in the south as such there are more corals here than the other islands. There are only a couple dive sites located southeast and north east of the arch. Darwin is about quality rather than quantity and can be overwhelming and those returning on board are in awe of this magnificent area.
Beginning with the dolphins escort to your dive site, it is easy to see why this is the best site in Galapagos. Darwin's Arch sits just above the surface on an underwater plateau. The steep barnacle covered walls drop off to the deeper ocean. Entering the water it is thick with hammerheads. At times there are so many you can't count them all. As they swim over the reef you can reach out and touch them, however easily startled by divers bubbles they will quickly change direction and spook everything around them. On the ridge side there are large schools of fish including creolefish, rainbow chub, bigeye jacks, moorish idols, mackerels, blue and gold snappers, Mexican hogfish, cornetfish, trumpetfish, parrotfish as well as Panamic green morays, turtles, flounders and octopuses. From June to November there is a very good chance to see whale sharks here - as well as tiger sharks, marlins and whales have been spotted.
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