Darwin

About the site

Darwin

Darwin is the northernmost island of the Galápagos, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Wolf: a small block of cliffs, around one square kilometer, that is the top of an extinct volcano. It was named in honor of Charles Darwin, although he never came this far north. There is no visitor site on land, and only liveaboard dive cruises reach it.

Darwin and Wolf are protected by the Darwin and Wolf Marine Sanctuary, created in 2016, and together they hold one of the largest concentrations of sharks on the planet. Darwin is famous above all for its schools of scalloped hammerheads and, from about June to November, for its whale sharks, most of them large females. Galápagos and silky sharks, dolphins, eagle rays, green turtles, tuna and great schools of jacks are part of almost every dive.

The classic dives are around the remains of Darwin's Arch, which collapsed in 2021 and left two pillars, and on El Arenal, the sandy slope below them. Divers settle at the edge of the reef platform, holding on to the rocks, to watch the sharks in the current, and end the dive drifting in the blue.

The currents are strong, the surge can be heavy and there are often thermoclines, so Darwin is for experienced divers only. Frigatebirds, red-footed and Nazca boobies and swallow-tailed gulls nest on the island.

Highlights

• Rich Marine Life