...in Galápagos

Darwin Island (continued) / Wolf

After we had become accustomed to seeing hammerheads around us, the next goal was to see Mr. Big. The limited visibility kept you constantly searching the shadows of the deep blue, wondering if that large school of jacks could possibly be something more. On one particular dive, Lisa and I became separated and were going about our own thing, photographing hammerheads and the multitude of moray eels around. Upon surfacing, I hear "Did you see that whale shark?!" The last question you want to hear if you didn't see it! Turns out that Lisa was nearly run over by one. While swimming over the rocks, she just happened to look behind her and saw a medium sized (~30 foot) whale shark heading directly towards her. She had barely enough time to swim out of the way and grab this shot below, before it turned and started to swim away. You can see another diver towards the bottom of the frame for size reference.

This was the only whale shark encounter we (i.e. she) had during the week, though others on the trip had spotted a couple of them on other dives. The visibility made it very difficult to spot them. You also realized that you were spending the entire dive searching the deep blue and saving your film for that chance encounter, or the hammerheads to come closer, while overlooking all of the life below you. Moray eels, stone scorpionfish, and macro subjects galore below waited below you. This soon became very apparent and we switched over to shooting macro with our Aquatica housings, and kept a Nikonos V with a wide angle handy just in case Mr. Big decided to show up again.

We made 6 dives at Darwin over 2 days, each one being essentially the same and in the same spot, but with uncertainty about what encounters you might have. Bottlenose dolphins swimming on both sides of the boat escorted us to the dive site each time. They seemed to escort us to a point, but when approaching the arch, they backed off, almost as if saying, "we aren't going to that place!"

Meanwhile back on the boat, we weren't completely isolated from wildlife encounters. While we couldn't go to the wildlife on the island, there was nothing preventing them from coming to us. Each day at Darwin, the bow of the boat was covered with juvenile red-footed boobies, each posturing to claim their spot on this new perch. As with all of the other wildlife, they were approachable within inches. I never thought I would be making portraits of seabirds with a 105 mm macro lens. Flight shots were more challenging, and put the 80-400 VR lens to a real test as far as focus tracking and following the birds. It performed "ok," being able to keep a lock when prefocusing the lens, though the majority of the flight shots ended up in the trash bin.

We then moved to Wolf Island, which similar to Darwin had steep rocky cliffs with no opportunity for shore landings. Wolf is much larger than Darwin, shaped somewhat like an "L" creating a few varieties of dive sites to choose from. Unfortunately, our first dive at Wolf was very similar to what we are used to in the Great Lakes…very poor visibility, and mostly a barren rocky bottom. Previous experiences at Wolf reported encounters with both hammerheads and whale sharks, and this proved to be an example of how conditions and experiences can vary widely around the islands. One treat at Wolf was a resident group of sea lions that were floating at the surface in the cove where the RS was docked. Passing on the second dive, a majority decided snorkeling with the sea lions offered much more potential. A third dive was made at Wolf in search of the rare red-lipped batfish. We ultimately found one resting on the sandy bottom at 100 feet, and it never stood still long enough to grab a photo.