Sara Maxwell in the Fernandina Island, Galapagos Islands, Equador--The L/P Guadalupe River finally arrived at Isla Fernandina the morning of Oct 1 after a three day, two night trip.  As we weaved through the Canal Bolívar that separates Isla Fernandina and Isla Isabela, we gaped at the massive volcanos that top each of the islands.  La Cumbre (roughly translated to "The Peak") is the one and only volcano on Fernandina, but it is HUGE - the third largest in the Galapagos at 4,800 ft (1463 m).  

La Cumbre at sunset from our camp at Cabo Douglas, though this picture doesn't do justice to its size!

Once we arrived at Cabo Douglas, our home for the next 6 weeks, we unloaded the gear, backpacks and 720 liters of freshwater - there is no freshwater source on the island, so this means that we had to carry all we needed with us.  This also meant that there would be no showering for 6 weeks - bathing only in the sea for us!

Map of the Galapagos Islands with Puerto Ayora (main town where I am now) and Cabo Douglas on Isla Fernandina marked with yellow push pins

The remainder of the day was spent setting up camp until at the end we had a kitchen tent, shade tent, equipment tent and our own personal tents.  Our camp was set up just a few yards from Sea Lion Bay and we had frequent visitors to the camp, including lots of fur seals, penguins, sea lions, marine and land iguanas - we were just visiting their home after all!

The camp!

Sea Lion Bay at sunrise. Photo: Jana Jeglinski

Once the camp was in place, the real work began: time to deploy the tags!  The first few days was a flurry of activity as we put out satellite transmitters and dive recorders on 6 adult female fur seals, 6 adult female sea lions and a slew of juvenile sea lions.  This was no easy job!  Jana would use a net to catch the animal, then we would weigh and measure it, take samples for DNA and stable isotopes (just a very small skin sample) and attach the tags with what was basically super glue.

Jana capturing a sleeping fur seal

Jana and I attaching a satellite tag and dive recorder to a juvenile sea lion

The most fun of the captures, however, was working with the pups.  We would also weigh and measure the sea lion and fur seal pups of the moms we tagged.  So small and soft and sweet, working with the pups was always really fun.

Mother and pup sea lion

Maria, David and Jana measuring a sea lion pup

Once the tags were attached, we let the animals do their thing for one to two weeks, then recaptured the same animals to get the tags (and the data!) back.  Due to a limited number of satellite tags (they are quite expensive!) we did this in two separate rounds to make sure Jana had all of the data she needs for her thesis.  

Juvenile sea lion with dive recorder

Female fur seal with satellite tag and dive recorder. Photo: Jana Jeglinski

After just a couple of days, we had the routine down pat and we worked like a well-oiled machine!

Success! The crew: David, me (Sara), Maria & Jana on Flat Rocks with Wolf Volano in the background