Today began very early. We got up, and made the kilometre and a half, or so, walk to the dock in Puerto Ayroa, arriving by 7am. Today we were off on a small voyage to nearby Floreana Island, about 50km south of Santa Cruz.
We boarded the taxi from the quayside to our waiting boat, and once we were all aboard motored south.
Floreana was our ‘lunch time destination’. Our real port of call was the Devil’s Crown, and collapsed volcano, now home to corals and fish of all varieties.
Our task was to map the organisms living inside ‘the Crown’. This is an incredibly important task, and a real privilege to do. The Devil’s Crown has been closed to tourists for several years now, after unscrupulous and careless tourists and tourist boats damaged the organisms inside the sunken cauldera. Getting permission to enter it was really something. I will post a video of some of the marine life that we encountered soon.
We were dropped off by our boat and swam with the current through the Crown in 2 groups. It was a very exciting swim, but extremely difficult. The current was incredibly strong and it involved a lot of effort to remain in the area we were interested in.
This was my first snorkeling in open water, and I only went around once. The students who have done lots of this sort of thing went around twice. The results of this will help us to understand how marine life can recover when given the opportunity, free from human activity.