Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 08:06:30 -0600
From: Jerry Wellington <wellington@UH.EDU>
To: strong@nadn.navy.mil
Subj: Galapagos

I recently returned from a three [week] trip to Galapagos,  December 4-22.  We
visited nearly every island in the Archipelago except the most northern
islands, Darwin and Wolf. SST's were on average 27C, no thermocline (to a
depth 30 m) was evident at any of the sites we visited, which included
Fernandina and Islabela.  No coral bleaching was observed.  Godfrey Merlen
(resident and naturalist in Galapagos) reported deaths of several marine
iguanas at Punta Mangle, Fernandina, presumably due to the decline in their
major food, the green algae Ulva.  Other than this observation there did
not appear to be any negative effects on marine life at this point. There
has been extensive rainfall and all the islands were very green.  Water
visibility was in excess of 20 meters at several locations.

Jerry Wellington