Isla Pinzón

“Who were the Pinzón brothers?” a curious voice piped up from the group. Excellent question! Here in the heart of the Galápagos, we find Isla Pinzón, named after those very brothers, Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón. They captained the Pinta and the Niña, sailing alongside Columbus on his inaugural voyage to the New World. Isla Pinzón sits in the middle of the archipelago, surrounded by deep waters. This isolation has shaped its unique character. The landscape is rugged, dominated by rocks, low spiny vegetation, and scattered trees. Unlike many of the other arid Galápagos Islands, Isla Pinzón’s higher elevation means it experiences *garúa*, a heavy mist during the dry season. This mist fosters the growth of epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants for support, not nutrients. You’ll find ferns and bromeliads clinging to trees, and even to the prickly pear cactus! Isla Pinzón is a haven for unique wildlife. Darwin’s finches flit through the air, their beaks perfectly adapted to the island’s resources. Galápagos doves coo softly, while the vibrant vermilion flycatcher adds a splash of color. The Galápagos snake slithers through the undergrowth, and the island boasts its own species of lava lizard and giant tortoise. However, this delicate ecosystem faced a serious threat. For over a century, black rats, an introduced species, plagued Isla Pinzón. These invaders decimated the tortoise population, devouring their eggs and hatchlings. The rats also wreaked havoc on native snails. Whalers and scientific expeditions further diminished the tortoise numbers. Imagine, in 1905 the California Academy of Sciences collected about 80 tortoises from this very island. Even remnants of two World War II airplanes, crashed here from the US Base at Baltra, can still be found on Pinzón! In 1965, a crucial turning point arrived with the launch of the Pinzón tortoise project. Scientists began collecting tortoise eggs from natural nests and raising the hatchlings in captivity. Since the first 20 tortoises were returned to Pinzón in 1970, over 800 young tortoises have been released. In a remarkable conservation effort, a successful rat eradication campaign was carried out in 2012. A survey in 2014 confirmed the success. The repatriated tortoises were thriving, the original native tortoises persisted, and, for the first time in over a century, native-born hatchlings were found. Isla Pinzón was reborn. Though Isla Pinzón has no official visitor sites, its surrounding waters are a popular fishing spot for local fishermen. The deep waters to the south, at a site called No Name Rock, offer spectacular scuba diving opportunities, with sightings of hammerhead sharks and Galápagos sharks. Isla Pinzón remains a vital conservation site. Though rats are now gone, the tortoise project continues to bolster the tortoise population, giving these gentle giants a renewed chance to flourish in their island home.