Galápagos Marine Reserve

Other habitats within the GMR are the rocky seabed, vertical rock faces, sandy beaches, mangrove swamps and, to a lesser extent, coral reefs.

A popular spot is Tortuga Bay on the Island of Santa Cruz where there is a separate mangrove where there are always white tip reef sharks [2] Coastal lakes, moist soil and areas where freshwater and seawater mix contain unique species still to be studied.

Cold, hot and warm marine currents come together here, generating a wide diversity of animal life: from small coloured fish to large mammals:[3] marine iguanas, Galapagos land iguanas, galapagos crabs, Galápagos sea lion, Sharks, Blue footed boobie, swallow-tailed gulls, ducks, frigatebirds and the galápagos tortoise.

The grounding of the tanker Jessica, delivering bunker fuel and diesel for tourist boats and the Ecuadorian Navy, brought world attention to the marine threats from increased human activities on the Islands.

Among them are the Charles Darwin Foundation and WildAid, which is working to improve the capacity of the Parque Nacional de Galápagos staff to protect the reserve from overfishing and other threats.

Puerto Ayora at night on the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador
School of scalloped hammerheads at Wolf Island in the Galapagos Islands
Another school of scalloped hammerheads at Wolf Island, Galapagos
From the plane of an Airbus A320, flying out Baltra Island (on the right) and Santa Cruz Island (on the left) and between the two islands is the Itabaca Channel an area filled with water taxis taking people in between and to waiting boats off shore waiting for multi day cruises.