The Galápagos: Nature’s Laboratory

Why the sea lions, blue-footed boobies and more are so docile at this ecologically significant archipelago

While snorkeling along the rocks of Devil’s Crown, a volcanic crater that protrudes from the equatorial waters off the coast of the Galápagos’ Floreana Island, I find myself nearly nose-to-nose with a native sea lion. He seems just as eager to check me out as I am him. Yet right as we’re about to fully nuzzle, I flinch and shriek into my mask, unaccustomed to …