My name is Mariana Vera, and I’ve been involved in conservation for more than 7 years. Right now I am working as an associate researcher in the marine coastal research area of the Charles Darwin Foundation in Galapagos (Ecuador). As a science diver, my work is centered around ecological monitoring and I specialize in taxonomic […]
I’ve asked Stuart to write a short description of the scientific background behind the dive program that is at the heart of the research cruise that I have been fortunate enough to participate in and that description can be found at the bottom of this journal entry. However, I wanted to try and graphically illustrate […]
For those of you who are chronologically oriented, here is a summary of our week at sea aboard the M/V Queen Mabel as she explored the western part of the Galapagos Archipelago. Below is a map showing the complete cruise track with the general areas that we visited outlined and below that are the detailed […]
In this day of high speed computers, sophisticated satellite observation systems and the continuously connected world in which we do our science, it has been quite a eye opening and muscle straining experience to realize that people still do oceanographic research the old fashioned way — by hand! The ocean waters around the Galapagos teem […]
I have just learned that there is a chance that I may get to go ashore this morning just south of Tagus Cove and Beagle Crater and hike up to the rim where there is a small outpost station manned by a couple of members of the Galapagos National Park Service. I am not sure […]
We loaded the boat this morning at 8:00 am, transferring everything that we would need for the week into a small inflatable dingy which made three trips out to the M/V Queen Mabel before everything was on-board. The captain decided that we’d leave port at around 6:00 pm this evening, just as the sun is […]
Prayer of the Breton fisherman I am certainly no stranger to boats. I have wrestled sharks with a half naked Samoan fisherman in a leaky outrigger canoe in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, stood on the crosstrees of the mainmast, 130 feet above the deck, of the wooden tall ship HMS Rose (the boat […]
I have been very fortunate to be accompanied on my first trip to Galapagos by Professor John Morrison of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a long-time colleague, collaborator and friend. Having been here many times over the past eight years, John was a great source of local knowledge and invaluable in helping ease the […]
Fish markets in the States are generally judged by their degree of sterility, cleanliness and lack of, well, fishiness. In Galapagos, as in many countries around the world, there is a much closer connection between the fish, the fisherman and the fish market. Each morning on my way to the Symposium and each evening on my way home, I pass by a little covered area along the shore of Pelican Bay that is the site of an open air fish market and which is also the site to some of the most amazing wildlife battles that I have seen. Throughout the day, local fishermen tie up their little blue boats along the dock and bring ashore all sorts of fish to sell.
After nearly two days and twenty hours of death by powerpoint, the opportunity finally arose where I was going to be able to walk perhaps as close as I was going to come in the footsteps of Darwin. While Darwin never set foot on Santa Cruz Island, a trip was organized for a group of […]
