Galapagos Islands: Darwin's Living Laboratory
The Galapagos Islands are one of the most biodiverse and unique places on earth.
In May 2013, a group of researchers went on a 10 day expedition to map the islands
Galapagos is definitely the best conserved tropical archipelago in the world. So that
makes really a unique place in the world. It's not just about its beauty, its not just
about its famous touristic place. Its mainly about Galapagos' unique functional ecosystem.
The Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation invited Google to the Galapagos
Islands to collect imagery for both scientific applications and management of the islands.
Surprisingly, the Galapagos have not been that well mapped in the past. There has always
been satellite imagery, of course. But, to now take that next step and work with Google
to provide better mapping for Galapagos is something that's very very important for our
work and much appreciated.
Isabela Island: the wetlands complex
First time, first trekking in Galapagos, so let's see how it goes.
We usually see this kind of tortoise here and actually these tortoises are born in captivity.
They are part of the reproduction program of the Galapagos National Park.
Doing research in Galapagos is a very very tough task. So if there is some way to capture
as much information as possible and then having this information collection available for
research it's just great because you can minimize the cost of field work.
Invasive species have always been the biggest threat to the Galapagos Archipelago. Invasive
species are plants and animals that don't belong here, but once they are here, they
often turn into a threat for the endemic and the native wildlife.
We are brushing off the remains of Humedales and Minas de Azufre on Isabela Island. And we're getting
rid of all of these plants before we take it onto another island. And we're just trying
to get all the seeds, all the plant matter off.
Galapagos is one of those places that if you were to take anybody underwater, this is the
location in the would you would take someone. So its very very important that we reveal
this well. It started off as a project to reveal the ocean to the world. Google is a
critical partner for us. Cause there's no real point to doing the science unless you
do the engagement and get people aware of what's actually happening underwater. We've
seen a 50% drop in coral coverage over the years. So, if we want to do something about
what's going on in the oceans, we really need to take people virtual diving.
We counted probably around 50 sea lions. So there were...it was almost like a big ball
of sea lions around it.
Santa Cruz coast: Plaza Islands
It's probably about 6:30 in the morning and we are about to take the trekker out and attach
it to the front of the boat and collect some of the shoreline of the Plaza Islands. We're
hoping to help the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Service get
validation data and imagery to really prove what kind of vegetation, what kind of birds
are in certain areas of the islands.
North Seymour Island: Mosquera sand bar
This morning's dive will be a very interesting dive because Galapagos is famous for its currents
and really we don't know what to expect so you can get some really vicious currents coming
around sea mounts etc. and over the top, and even pushing you down. So you gotta be very
careful on these kind of dives especially when you're in very deep water.
Today, we're heading to Mosquera, which is a sandbar between the island of Santa Cruz
and the island of Baltra.
Isabela Island: Sierra Negra
Well, we're here at the horse base camp and we're about to go up to the top of the crater.
Very excited. Gonna be a good day.
It's a pity that it's cloudy now because otherwise if it's open, it would be an amazing view,
but let's see if we are lucky and later maybe we have some sun. Please!
Well, about 5 minutes ago it was completely clear. There was no fog, you could see the
steam, you could see the sulfur. You could see all the lava. How does it look up there?
Daniel, can you hear me?
Yeah, I hear you loud and clear. It's amazing. Geologists will love us for the years to come!
I'm so sorry you are not here.
We're gonna visit in street view.
Explore Darwin's Living Laboratory
Hello Galapagos
Hello world
Special thanks to the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park, Charles Darwin Foundation, and Catlin Seaview Survey
Discover Galapagos at g.co/treks