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Galapagos Diving

For diving lovers we have several options that can vary from beginner to expert, and from Daily Diving Tours to complete packages.

Diving FAQ's

Temperatures

The range of surface temperature of the sea is from 18ºC to 30ºC. September to November are the coldest months, and February to April the warmest. Thermoclines are present, between 10 to 30 meters depth ( 30 to 100 feet) and the temperature can drop from one to five degrees Celsius. We will supply divers with wet suits and appropriate gear for the temperatures.

Currents

You will probably dive in medium to strong currents. We understand medium currents to be between one and three knots (between 1 and 4 miles/hour or between 2 and 6 Km./hour), and strong currents are more than three knots (more than 4 miles/hour or 6 Km./hour). Galapagos diving can be tricky if you are caught in an unexpected current on the surface. Just relax, get positive buoyancy and call the boat. If you are in a group, get close together. In the garúa season (from July to December) the Humboldt current coming from the southeast is present. In the warm season (from January to June) the Panamá current from the northeast.

Visibility

100 feet or 30 meters often is present in the Galápagos waters. You shall expect a visibility from 50 to 80 feet or 15 to 25 meters in most of the places. In some areas and in some seasons due to the richness of phytoplankton, green waters are present. This planktonic algae is the first step in the trophic chain and is necessary to sustain all marine life at the islands.

Information required

All diving tour programs are customized for the customer. Safety comes first and therefore we require the following information about each passenger’s diving experience in order to customize a program that will fit the customer’s skills and interests:

Type of diving license (level and training agency)
Current number of dives made
Date of last dive
Experience with drift and wall diving
Experience diving in cold water and with thick wetsuits
What would the customer like to see in the Galapagos?

With this information, we can put together a suitable program and the customer is off to experience one of the most fantastic dive adventures

Galapagos Daily Diving Tours

Academy Bay

The Academy Bay area is a short navigation from the dive center. This area is great for introductory diving, beginner and intermediate divers. The Academy Bay area is easy diving with very little current. The following are some of the Academy Bay diving sites; dive sites will not be specified when confirming an Academy Bay dive trip.

Punta Estrada Sea turtle canyon in Academy Bay. Invertebrates, tropical fish, stingrays, green sea turtles; possible encounters with golden rays and some whitetip reef sharks. There are interesting geological formations here. Caamaño Islet Offers a chance to swim and play with friendly sea lions, many tropical fish and marine iguanas.

Punta Nuñez Cliffs Wall diving with a cave. At this site, you can see turtles, stingrays, tropical fish, whitetip sharks and – occasionally – manta rays.

El Bajo This submerged shoal at Academy Bay has an impressive amount of fish, whitetip sharks, morays, invertebrates, caverns, eagle rays, stingrays, turtles and sea fans. A great diving site for intermediate as well as for experienced divers.

Outside Academy Bay

The dive sites outside Academy Bay have navigation distances of between 20 to 38 miles.The approximate travel time is 1 hour to most sites. Always has at least three crew members on board when diving outside of Academy Bay(Captain, deckhand and dive master). These areas are spectacular world-class diving sites, best suited for intermediate to experienced divers.

Floreana Enderby Islet, Punta Ayora, Champion Islet and Devil's Crown are the dive sites where you will experience sea lions, turtles, exotic fish, thousands of tropical fish, barracudas, black coral, whitetip and Galapagos sharks, moray eels, some hammerheads and eagle rays. You will have an excellent opportunity for dolphin watching during the boat trip to and from Floreana. You will also enjoy watching the local marine and bird life such as sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigatebird, penguins and marine iguanas from the boat.

Gordon Rocks Here you will experience turtles, big fish, hundreds of tropical fishes, hammerheads, Galapagos sharks, white tips, large morays, spotted eagle rays, golden and stingrays as well as fur sea lions. This is the best one day trip for experienced divers, when done in combination with Seymour or Mosquera Islet.

Seymour Schools of hammerheads, loads of snappers and other fish, turtles, morays, manta rays and white tip sharks, sea lions, garden eels.

Cousins Rock An intermediate dive combination of shoal and wall diving with sea lions, large amounts of fish, white tip sharks, hammerheads, eagle rays and manta rays. There is a breathtaking vertical wall with a profusion of black corals and other invertebrates. It’s possible to find seahorses and frogfish here as well. This dive site is always combined with diving in Bartolome.

Bartolome Stingrays, turtles, white tips, plenty of fish, invertebrates and interesting rock formations with crevices. During the surface interval between Cousins and Bartolome dives, we snorkel to look for penguins.

Mosquera Islet Largest colony of garden eels, mantas, sea turtles, white tips and maybe hammerheads schools and eagle rays, as well as plenty of tropical fish and sea lions.

Daphne Islet Wall diving with morays, white tips, eagle rays, stingrays, sea lions, Galapagos sharks , hammerheads, turtles, black corals and many other invertebrates, and hundreds of fish.

Santa Fe Easy diving with little current. Whitetips, turtles, stingrays and occasionally a couple of hammerheads. snorkeling with sea lions at surface interval.