We really wanted to photograph the Galapagos penguin underwater on a recent trip to the islands. Sadly the species is endangered and is now the rarest penguin in the world and so we didn't want to get our hopes up! While visiting one of the islands called Bartolome we noticed about five penguins feeding offshore around the base of a pinnacle rock. We quickly grabbed our snorkel equipment and swam over to the penguins. Within seconds the penguins were all around us, cutting through the water like torpedoes with jets of bubbles marking their trail.They are slow and clumsy on land but very adept in the water as they propel themselves by using their wings as flippers. The penguins were feeding on small bait balls (fish shoals). Sometimes the fish would shoal around us and so the penguins would swim all around us zig zagging and flipping with incredible agility.
Snorkeling with penguins was one of the highlights of our trip to the Galapagos and I recently gave the Galapagos Conservation Trust permission to use some of my images on their website.
