We got a couple of e-mails from readers asking why
their Galapagos dive trips aboard the Buddy Dive liveaboards,
M.Y. Wolf Buddy and M.Y. Darwin Buddy, were
cancelled. Bob Speir (Falls Church, VA) wrote, "My wife
and I had a May trip arranged on Buddy Dive out of San
Cristobal. However, we just got notice from the travel
agent at Caradonna that Buddy Dive has lost its permits
there and may not get them back through April or later.
Got any idea what has happened?"
Kayla Koeber (St. George, UT) had trips scheduled
for mid-December but then got an e-mail from Buddy
Dive that it was forced by the Galapagos National Park
Service (GNPS) to stop operations for reasons unknown.
"Our lawyers informed us that this action is illegal, but
unfortunately, the Park has the power to stop any operation
or ship at any time." The Park was going to have a
hearing on December 11, and according to Buddy Dive's
note, "We expect that our operations will be back to normal.
As, of course, this is depending on their decision,
we can't give any guarantees our ships will cruise."
Koeber got to go on her trip, but she was on the
final voyage. On December 24, the GNPS suspended
the operations of Buddy Dive liveaboards in the marine reserve for not having complied with the provisions
of their operating license. In a press release, the GNPS
stated that the operators had not submitted semiannual
reports on their performance regarding GNPS's environmental
management plan, they had not presented
environmental compliance audits, and they had not paid
a required annual fee to the park.
When we inquired with Paul Coolen, Buddy Dive's
general manager in Bonaire, he blamed the Park for
yo-yo decisions about his company, and his frustration
was obvious. "It seems that our efforts so far are not
leading to a permanent solution. First they suspend us,
the week after, they let us operate and the week after
that, they suspend us again? It's very strange . . . and our
clients are suffering from this decision."
Then on January 29, Buddy Dive officially announced
it was shutting down operations in the Galapagos.
Coolen told us he couldn't give the reasons why at the
present time.
There are still three Galapagos liveaboards - the
Galapagos Sky, Humboldt Explorer and the Galapagos
Aggressor -- but now the number of slots for divers every
week has gone down from 112 to 48. That means if you
want to dive the Galapagos, the earliest you'll get the
chance isn't until 2016.