At 600 miles west of Ecuador there are arid islands in Pacific Ocean, which are called Galapagos Islands. These islands are famous for large tortoises weighing hundreds of pounds. But so many people don’t know that other fascinating creatures also live in an undersea realm offshore.
In 1924 William Beebe had written a book about Galapagos “ World’s End” in that he described the contrast between islands and their underwater generosity. He Wrote that host of sally-lightfoots were the most brilliant spots of color above the water in the islands, putting to shame the dull, drab hues of the terrestrial organisms and hinting at the glories of colorful animal life beneath the surface of the sea.
In Galapagos waters four currents converge:
- The Peru or Humboldt to from the south.
- The Equatorial from the West.
- The North Equatorial
- And the fourth is the Panama
The fish and other sea species from different oceans and habitat migrate to these currents and quickly makes themselves at home along the rocky shores, on a sandy sea bottom and in the mangrove forests of the Galapagos.
The most playful creature on the Galapagos Islands is the sea lions. Most of time they are slicing through the water with dazzling speed and sometimes it seems as they are dancing underwater, twisting, turning, stretching and arching their sleek bodies amid clouds of plankton.
They are not afraid from divers also a sea lion will swim just inches from a diver’s mask as if its going to kiss or embrace the diver with its flippers.
A school bus size sea monster also lives in Galapagos water, the whale shark. Largest fish in the sea that eats plankton and fish strained from the water by its wide mouth. Anyhow encounter with it are rare here but rare with other sharks. Hammerhead sharks with length of six to eight feet with heads shaped like sledgehammers swim in schools of a hundred or more.
In other denizens of equatorial waters are Galapagos Penguins. These penguins live only here and along Pacific coast of South America near the Equator. They swim in these with water with great ease chasing fish and avoiding sharks. They may be seen waddling out of water on the island’s volcanic rocks.
There is another unique animal that is seen on Galapagos Islands that is marine iguana with reptilian features. Its strong-clawed feet to grip slippery rocks and muscular body and tail to swim in strong tides and also its body help it to protect it from predators. For its food it uses its blunt snout to scrape algae from submerged rocks.
Anyhow Galapagos group of islands having so many wonders but it don’t have coral reef but there is volcanic rocks formation beneath the sea. Some of these rocks are leafless and some are covered by red algae, orange and costing sponges, orange cup corals and bushes of black coral.
The reason for low number of reef building coral is a weather phenomenon called EI Nino. EI Nino regularly brings an incursion of water that is poor in nutrients and unusually warm, these conditions are not suitable for corals and plankton growth. Because of EI Nino rainfall increases that brings large amount of fresh water adding to seawater that damages to coral growth.
But on the other these seas hold a high number of fish species almost 300 species from which 17 percent are particularly founded only in this region. From them are the hieroglyphic hawkfish lives at the bottom of sea and on body its having engraved symbols. The red lipped batfish with fashion model red lips. Because of so many fish species this archipelago attracts so many fishermen.
Though this area is protected by a presidential legal order in 1986 to making it the Marine Resource Reserve but still it is the site for illegal fishing. The park rangers are not having enough resources to patrol almost 30,000 square miles. But the authorities are working on plan to provide the fisherman with a livelihood while not significantly affecting the underwater habitat.
The efforts also been made to save the island’s earth animals, specially the tortoises. The scientists at Charles Darwin Research Station are working to protect the large size tortoises and trying to re introduce the giant tortoises to more remote areas of the archipelago.
Luckily almost 750,000 birds still can be found in these islands. In these birds there are flycatchers, mockingbirds, yellow warblers, hawks, owls and finches are common. There are almost 19 species of seabirds including the blue-footed booby, red footed booby, frigate bird and the waved albatross.
Charles Darwin first came to this island in 1835 and he noticed that the animals of same species look different on different islands. Years after he given that revolutionary theory of evolution and he written on the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Search Here
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
The Galapagos Islands are the most incredible living museum of evolutionary changes, with a huge variety of exotic species (birds, land animals, plants) and landscapes not seen anywhere else.