Marine Iguana

Photo: Shawn O'Donnell · CC BY

Fernandina supports the largest marine iguana colony in the Galapagos, with tens of thousands of individuals using Punta Espinoza's lava fields as basking territory before diving to forage. The Fernandina subspecies is among the largest, with adult males exceeding 1.5 meters, and their underwater movements attract curious sea lions that occasionally follow and playfully harass them. Divers can observe iguanas actively scraping green algae from submerged lava shelves in water as shallow as 2 meters, their darkened skin warming rapidly when they return to the surface sun.