Keep Calm and Hold Your Breath

Josef Litt · Issue 92, Sep/Oct 2016 · pp. 44–46

Products mentioned: Canon 7D, Tokina 10-17 Fisheye, Nauticam NA-7D, ZEN Underwater 100mm dome port, Nauticam 8.5" dome port, INON Z-240

In 1989 CEDAM International, an organisation dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the marine environment, brought together a panel of experts to draw up a list of marine areas worthy of special protection. This list was announced as the Seven Wonders of the Underwater World. It will hardly come as a surprise that Galápagos Islands feature on this list. I believe that the exceptional underwater life around the two most northern islands of the archipelago, Darwin Island and Wolf Island, is the reason for this recognition. Darwin Island lies 160 km northwest of Isabela, one of the main islands of the Galápagos archipelago. The island does not provide a natural berthing place so it is no wonder that the first land visit happened only in 1964 with a help of a helicopter. The massive tip of a now extinct and mostly submerged volcano, that rises a thousand meters from the sea floor…