Night Diving in Galapagos...

Light is out and Dark is in!!! Well at least in terms of night diving in the famed Galapagos!

Customers want them... and traditionally the Marine Park has not allowed them. Recently the liveaboards in the Galapagos have been working to offer night dive options.

Great right? Well not all night dives are created equally. So here is the 'rest of the story'.

Hello Kamala,
Night dives are permitted now but we can only do them where they are safe, Many boats are advertising them but very few are actually doing them as viable options are very limited. As far as EV is concerned most of our nights are spent either on crossings or at Darwin or Wolf where we are limited due to conditions. Darwin is absolutely not safe for night dives with the currents. There is one site on Wolf called Anchorage. It is in a protected bay and is a good night dive that we do on request. The only negatives are it it is 80- 90ft deep and about 10-15 degrees colder due to the depth.

Also if they do a night dive it would mean sacrificing another dive that day. It will be up to the group to decide when they arrive. If they want to do the night dive they need to bring their own lights.

As for the other operators they all give up a day dive for the night dive if the boat votes to do it. Most have not been doing them lately as far as we can tell. Everyone has a different itinerary so they may have a site like Cabo Marshall or Punta Vincente Roca where there is a safe place to do a dive.But these are on different islands and for us to do those sites we would have to give up some of the 4 days we do in Darwin and Wolf.

If any of your groups want an itinerary change we can always apply for one. Sites like Cabo Douglas with the marine iguanas can be added but it does increase travel time and will cut out 1.5 days up north in Darwin and Wolf.

You know how I feel, WW. Night Diving is not a priority for me & I prefer to maximize the bottom time during daylight hours. I would be hesitant to stray from a proven itinerary in the hopes of having a good night diving experience there. Just my 2 psi...

As I wrote in another topic, we did one night dive while on the EV boat in April. Going by memory, we were in about 30-40 foot of water max. It may have even been 30 max. This was only the first or second night dive the boat was offering, so they had not found " THE SPOT " for night diving. I was surprised with how little I saw on the dive. I love the night dives, and usually do as many as I am capable of doing, and was very excited to do the night dive there. That excitement has faded for me. I would not want to give up a Wolf or Darwin dive for the night dive unless you are so overwhelmed with the sharks for several days, and actually want a change of pace. I do know that the crew did as much as they could to talk us out of the night dive, because they did not want to do it. We did not give up another dive to do the night dive, but it took a lot of pressure from myself and a few other divers to make it happen. Ed

Thanks, Ed! BTW, you don't happen to be holding that winning lottery ticket, do ya???

If I had it, I would be in some exotic dive destination, where there is no internet access and I couldnt answer you.

Thanks, Ed! BTW, you don't happen to be holding that winning lottery ticket, do ya???

While I have always enjoyed night dives, sacrificing dives at Wolf and Darwin to do a night dive would be absurd!! I also don't want to give up a day dive to do any night dives.

I'm a big fan of night dives, but I agree with MNJoe, it wouldn't be worth it to me to miss any dives at Darwin or Wolf, or trade off with day dives. If a night dive can be incorporated into the schedule without sacrificing day dives, that would be great, otherwise I would pass.

It MAY be such a thing as we can 'force' a night dive on our trips when we are there without sacraficing any day dives but clearly there are legitimate issues regarding night dives in this area. It will be something we'll monitor as we get closer to the trip

Skip the night dive...I won't miss it. Currents and colder for one dive, not sounding ideal.