Galapagos Wildlife, Marine Life & Photography
Galapagos
£3,290
US$4,150
3rd - 10th Aug 2026 Hosted by Aqua-Firma Director & Photographer, Ralph Pannell
Arguably one of the best dive sites in the world, the waters surrounding Wolf Island has some spectacular marine life and varied underwater topography. There is a sheltered bay to moor in, often alongside a Sea Shepherd platform from which fishing boats are monitored in an attempt to spot any illegal entrants likely to be in pursuit of sharks to fin!
The bay is ideal for diving in search of Red Lipped Batfish and its easy going calm waters make for a good night diving too.
There are also dark rocky drop offs where you can dive, grip hold of some black solid volcanic lava and watch the marine world go by. And go by it does, in spectacular style with often so much to look at it's easy to forget everything you saw on a dive - nothing that a long and energised chat on the surface can't help you to remember. Forget about a surface marker buoys - it would be snagged by sharks swimming overhead before you even reach the bottom. Eagle rays often swim past in slow formation; green turtles provide regular underwater company; schooling hammerhead sharks may be joined by Galapagos and silky sharks; and you can often see here the most enormous whale sharks reaching 15 meters or more. Mantas rays of the giant variety (Manta birostris) are capable of reaching almost half this length wing tip to wing tip.
In amongst this marine Megafauna, you are often likely to be amongst what feels like a swarm of smaller fish species. These might include Galapagos grunts, amberjacks, trumpet fish, hogfish butterfly fish and coronet fish.
Wolf Island has some great caverns and swim throughs too to enjoy, which are the preferred habitat of white tip and black tip reef sharks. In between two of the islands there is also a stretch of water with some incredible currents. You can enter at one end and then twist and turn as if in a washing machine until you pop out at the other.
In addition to a wealth of marine life that can be encountered around Wolf's coastline, there is also an array of wildlife to be discovered above the sea surface. Wolf is a favoured safe haven for a number of varying bird species, including red-footed and masked booby colonies, frigate birds and swallow-tailed gulls.
A particularly interesting species to look out for is the sharp-beaked ground finch (aka Vampire Finch). The vampire finch's name derived from the fact that is pounces onto the back of its prey, such as red-footed or masked boobies and pecks their flesh to feed on their blood. This obscure behaviour is considered to be a behavioural adaption to poor diet. Vampire finches have also been known to roll booby eggs out of their nests to break them, then feed on the contents.
Other interesting species that exists on Wolf include geckos, endemic to the island and swallow-tailed gulls, which are endemic to the Galapagos and the world's only night-feeding gull.
The Beagle - Mary Anne - Cachalote - Sagitta - Amazonia - Samba - Beluga - Galaxy - Princess Grace - Aida Maria - Eden - Evolution - Eclipse - Grand Odyssey - Journey I - Eric - Flamingo - Letty - Odyssey - Athala - Nemo I - Nemo II - Diamante - Alta - Lammer Law - Rachel - La Pinta - Humboldt Explorer - Parranda - Isabela (Albemarie) - Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) - San Cristobal (Chatham) - Baltra (South Seymour) - North Seymour (Seymour Norte) - Fernandina (Narborough) - Española (Hood) - Genovesa (Tower) - Bartolomé (Bartolemew) - Santiago (San Salvador or James) - Santa María (Floreana or Charles) - Marchena (Blindoe) - Mosquera - Plaza Sur (South Plaza) - Pinta (Abingdon) - Pinzón (Duncan) - Santa Fé (Barrington) - Rabida (Jervis) - Daphne
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