Flightless Cormorant

Fernandina is home to the world's largest flightless cormorant population — the entire global population of roughly 1,000 individuals — and Punta Espinoza is their primary breeding and foraging site. Divers encounter them hunting fish along the lava reef, their pursuit-diving technique visible from underwater as they torpedo into the shallows and maneuver through tight reef structures with surprising agility. On the surface between dives, the spectacle of cormorants spreading their vestigial wings to dry alongside basking marine iguanas on fresh black lava is one of the most iconic images in wildlife photography.