Galapagos | Diving

Almost one quarter of the marine life in the Galapagos is endemic to the archipelago - 17% of its fish and 35% of its marine invertebrates - are found nowhere else in the world.  In fact, the marine community of the Galapagos is one of the most unique and exotic places on earth. Here, penguins swim with tropical fish. Iguanas dive into the waves to feed underwater. Sea-lions play in the waves and perform underwater acrobatics. The creatures of the seas around the Galapagos exhibit the same bold curiosity and lack of fear that is characteristic of the Galapagos's terrestrial wildlife.

Swept by both the cold waters of Antarctica and warm currents from the tropical Pacific, diving in the Galapagos’ colourful marine life presents a bizarre mixture of species. Great schools of fish cruise the open water, at times, so thick they nearly block out the sun. And diving the reefs reveals an amazing profusion of invertebrate life. You can also see some very big fish including the giant manta ray, whale shark and schools of hammerhead sharks.

Occasional diving on a general Galapagos cruise

In recent years Galapagos cruising options have become more limited for diving due to increased regulations. There are only a few boats that offer occasional scuba diving on an regular cruise. However, these do include Eric, Letty and Flamingo - one of our favourites.

Land-based diving on the Galapagos

You could instead choose to stay in one of our recommended hotels on the main island of Santa Cruz and make day trips with one of the dive centres operating there. This is a great idea to add a few dives after a non-diving Galapagos cruise as you will be restricted in the number of dive sites you can visit. See Finch Bay Hotel.

Live-aboard diving on the Galapagos

For a dedicated diving holiday, it's best to take a specialised 7 day live aboard diving cruise.

The islands of Wolf and Darwin are particularly attractive to divers for their profusion of hammerhead sharks, however they are quite remote and a live-aboard Galapagos diving cruise is the only way to reach these islands for diving.

Dedicated live-aboard diving departures with a dive master are only available on a few vessels sailing the Galapagos.  These include Lammer Law, Mistral II and Sky Dancer. You will be offered up to 2 to 4 dives a day depending on which boat you choose. Please contact us for information on availability.

The diving experience you need to dive the Galapagos

The Galapagos is not suitable for beginner or infrequent divers because of its strong currents, sea swells, surges, cool waters, up-wellings, poor visibility (at times), and large animals (including the harmless Galapagos shark).

In order to dive in the Galapagos safely all divers must be open water certified and should be experienced with adequate skills. We recommend that all divers should have at least 20 logged dives, or advanced dive certification. Divers must have excellent buoyancy control and be totally self-sufficient in handling all gear.