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The Galapagos Islands can be considered as a living museum, a place were you can appreciate the life exactly as it was millions of years ago, a paradise where a man can feel as an invader and be amazed about how animals ignore his presence.
Thanks to its late colonization, this archipelago represents a magnificent showcase of biodiversity. In no other large oceanic archipelago has human influence been so limited in space and time. According to a recent study of the Charles Darwin Foundation "this islands constitute a nearly unique example of how ecological, evolutionary and biogeographic processes shape the flora and fauna of single islands and an entire archipelago. The archipelago form itself promotes evolutionary change, with many different degrees of geographical and consequent genetic isolation. Isolation allows closely related populations to follow separate evolutionary tracks and leads to speciation and diversification."
The first Spanish sailors baptized this archipelago as the Enchanted Islands. It was not until Charles Darwin, the famous English naturalist, published the results of the observations he made during the five weeks he stayed at these islands (1835) as part of his Theory about the Evolution of the Species, that the name Galapagos became famous.
The Galapagos National Park is conformed by twenty volcanic islands and thirty islets distributed over a 80,000 kilometers surface. Only four out of twenty islands are inhabited, some of the remaining islands allow tourism meanwhile the rest are exclusively left for scientists.
Like the rest of other oceanic archipelagoes of the world, the Galapagos are of volcanic origin. Its source is a magma filtration that causes a "hotspot" under the terrestrial crust. As the plates move over this hotspot, the eruptions produce lava that is accumulated to form islands that drift eastwards on the Nazca Plate, away from the magma filtration.
The climate in the Galapagos islands is atypical for a tropical oceanic archipelago. The varying presence of cold water brought north from the southern ocean by the Peru (Humboldt) Current and the Peruvian Coastal Current cool and dry the Galapagos during great part of the year. When these currents are debilitated, and warmer tropical waters from the north surround the islands, the warmer rainy season occurs. In fact the particular richness of the waters that surrounds these islands is a consequence of the interaction of five different currents that concur in different times of the year with different intensities and temperatures.
The experience of diving in Galapagos is like everything else in these islands: very particular. A lot of experience and an advanced level of diving techniques are required. Strong currents, drastic changes in water temperature (termoclines), cold water, surge and sometimes low visibility represent a challenge even for the experienced diver and especially for the underwater photographer who has to add all this particularities to his already large list of things to consider.
One dive, especially in the northern islands of Darwin and Wolf, could be overwhelming due to the high voltage big animal encounters and the amazing quantity of life. Dozens of Galapagos sharks, aggressive silky sharks, huge schools of hammerheads swimming against the current as if the divers do not exist, dolphins, turtles, enormous schools of barracudas and, almost for sure, an encounter with the magnificent whale shark, are all part of an spectacle hard to find in any other part of the world.
I consider very important to include part of the conclusion of a study developed by the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands and World Wildlife Fund (2002), named A Biodiversity vision for the Galapagos Islands. Through this study we can understand the difficult reality this archipelago is facing and the tremendous challenge that represent conserving a place like this.
"Galapagos stands at a crossroad: unlike any other oceanic archipelago it still retains most of its original species, but ecological degradation is proceeding rapidly. With concerted conservation efforts, decisive policies and actions to address the root causes of the threats to Galapagos, the great majority of the islands unique biodiversity can be saved and even restored. Without such actions the degradation will be accelerated. Certain development trends are in conflict with the conservation of Galapagos, specially the growth of three sources of pressure: human population, transport to and within the archipelago, and fishing. These trends are driving the depletion of population of native's species and the transformation of natural ecosystems by a rapidly increasing array of invasive alien species, from diseases and insects through mammalian predators. Without radical and innovative measures to stop these trends and mitigate their impacts on the native flora and fauna, the processes of ecological change already under way will lead inevitably to loss of populations, extinction of species and disruption of ecosystems and evolutionary processes. In recent years the Government of Ecuador has started some important initiatives, notably controlling migration to the islands, initiating a quarantine inspection system, increasing Park funding, obtaining large grants and a loan for conservation projects, and creating the Galapagos Marine Reserve, which excludes industrial fishing and is managed by the Park through a participatory management regime involving local stakeholders and partner institutions. The Government is also preparing a strategy for the sustainability of human presence in Galapagos, as well as a binding regional plan built on that strategy….It is essential that the strategy and the plan addresses the threats to biodiversity and guide Galapagos towards a sustainable future, in which a small, well educated, healthy human population co-exists with nature, uses resources sparingly and works constantly to control alien species…"
(R.Bensted-Smith (ed.), FCD, Puerto Ayora, Galápagos)
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