Galápagos Marine Reserve

Created by Ecuador's Special Law of 1998, the Galápagos Marine Reserve wraps about 133,000 km² of ocean around the archipelago, where cold upwelling and tropical currents collide. The mix produces wildlife found nowhere else together: marine iguanas grazing underwater, penguins and flightless cormorants, sea lion colonies, whale sharks the size of buses off Darwin, and the hammerhead schools of Wolf. In 2022 Ecuador added the adjoining Hermandad Reserve, extending protection along the Cocos Ridge swimway. The reserve dictates the structure of all Galápagos diving — day boats from Puerto Ayora and a small, tightly regulated liveaboard fleet for the far northern islands.

The rules that bind divers

Dive tourism operates only through vessels holding Galápagos National Park operating permits (patentes) with fixed, park-approved itineraries and licensed guides aboard; Wolf and Darwin are reachable only on permitted liveaboards. Every visitor pays the national park entry fee on arrival — the long-standing USD 100 rate for foreign adults doubled to USD 200 in August 2024 — plus a transit-control card. Fishing is industrial-free reserve-wide and zoned for local artisanal use only; no-take zones cover key dive sites. No touching or approaching wildlife closer than set distances, no gloves, no anchoring on fragile bottom, and strict biosecurity screening applies to luggage and boats.

Fees & permits: Galápagos National Park entry fee (doubled to USD 200 for most foreign adults in August 2024) plus the INGALA transit card; dive fares include park-permitted vessel costs.