A question about the best time to visit Galapagos

[vkalia]

Folks, am hitting a bit of wall trying to figure out the best time to visit Galapagos and wanted some advice.

My understanding is that the summer season has better vis and warmer waters, while the winter season has colder waters, lower vis due to more plankton but also more marine life. How much of a difference is there in fish life though? Is it massive or just 10-15%? Big enough to be a determining factor, in other words?

Re megafauna:
1). Aug-October is the peak time for whale sharks - is this correct?
2). Mantas are from Dec to April (summer)
3). Hammerheads are present all year long, but according to one source, peak season is Dec-April and here, I have read they migrate away from Feb-April. Which is it? Also, how big a difference in hammerhead sightings are we talking about, when it comes to summer vs winter months?

What would you guys say is a good time to to go to maximise the overall Galapagos experience - see big schools of fish, large numbers of megafauna up close, and ideally, warmer waters (this last is a tiebreaker only - not a primary deciding factor).

TIA!

 

[MizzO]

Check out the Galapagos Aggressor logs as they detail what's seen each week: Galapagos Aggressor III Adventure Logs | Aggressor Adventures™

I booked with a similar understanding as you, and booked end of August thinking "middle of peak whale shark season, I'm sure to see one!" Most people on the boat thought similarly. But there were hardly any whale shark sightings this year in August and we didn't see any. It could have been the La Nina effect (waters were cooling then), or the dive guides mentioned that they don't see them if orcas are around hunting (though we didn't see any orcas, but that doesn't mean they weren't around).

I booked before doing a deep dive in the captains logs, but now know that Aggressor has consistently seen whale sharks on every trip in June every year since 2021, and almost every trip in July (except the last July sailing in 2023).

Yes hammerheads are typically around but the numbers vary. I think the peak is around March. We saw some in late August but I think the biggest congregation was about 6 together. Lots of other species, of course. And we had a lot of mola molas which was a treat.

Apart from the liveaboard (which was great despite not seeing a whale shark), my favourite part was spending a few nights unwinding on Floreana. I was impressed by the snorkelling there -- it was better than the dive sites we did around the central islands on the liveaboard. The biggest surgeon fish (huge), most turtles and sea lions I saw were snorkelling on Floreana, where I had the waters practically to myself. And a colony of Christmas marine iguanas. Was happy to have my 5mm even for snorkelling, and my 7mm was good for the Western dive sites (our lowest bottom temp was 14)

 

[vkalia]

Thanks, I'll check out the Captains Log, and also the Floreana - after coming all that way, we are definitely going to spend a little more time in the area.

I am trying to decide between "summer, warmer, mantas" and "winter, colder, whale sharks".

Other than this, would you or anyone else reading this know if there are any other major differences in the diving between these two periods - overall biomass/fish life on the reef, other interesting sightings, etc?