Baltra Island () is a small

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the Galápagos Archipelago in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. It is a small flat island located near the center of the chain and includes

Seymour Airport Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport (Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Ecológico Galápagos Seymour'') is an airport serving the island of Baltra, one of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. Name The airport preserves part of Baltra's other name, Sout ...

(GPS), originally established by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

to help monitor and protect western access to the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. Baltra is not part of the Galápagos National Park but some effort has been made to protect the local environment, including modernization of the airport and the reintroduction of the island's land iguanas.

Names

Baltra is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

particularly common in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. Baltra Island was probably named after Lieutenant Humberto Baltra Opazo (1884-1950), a naval officer on board the Chilean naval corvette General Baquedano which visited Galapagos for 3 weeks in 1910 to conduct a hydrographical survey of the archipelago; Lieutenant Baltra was specifically tasked with surveying Baltra Island and the Itabaca Channel between it and

Santa Cruz Island Santa Cruz Island (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Isla Santa Cruz'', Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Limuw'') is located off the southwestern coast of Ventura, California, United States. It is the largest island in California and largest of the ei ...

. The results of the Chilean survey were sent to the UK Hydrographic Office, where the name Baltra Island was incorporated into the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral of the ...

’s publication “South America Pilot” in 1911. The name was then added to a revised edition of the Admiralty’s Galapagos map (Chart #1375:Galapagos Islands surveyed by Captain FitzRoy, R.N. and the Officers of H.M.S. Beagle.) in 1920. The island is also known as South Seymour. It, North Seymour Island and the intervening islet of Mosquera were named “Seymours Isles” in 1845, in honour of George Francis Seymour, Commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station (1844-1847). This name was given by John James Onslow, captain of HMS Daphne (1838) which spent a month in Galapagos in February-March 1845.

Geography

Baltra was created by geological uplift.

Flora

Baltra is very arid and vegetation consists of salt bushes,

prickly pear cactus ''Opuntia'', commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers. Cacti are native to the Americas, and are well adapted to arid climat ...

and palo santo trees.

Wildlife

Baltra is not within the boundaries of the Galápagos National Park. The Galápagos land iguana is the subject of an active reintroduction campaign on the island. The American Captain G. Allan Hancock moved a population of the iguanas to North Seymour Island in the early 1930s ahead of the construction of the US air base on Baltra. The development of Baltra led to the local population's extinction by 1954 but the North Seymour colony thrived and became the breeding stock for the successful Charles Darwin Research Station

captive breeding Captive breeding, also known as captive propagation, is the process of keeping plants or animals in controlled environments, such as wildlife reserves, zoos, Botanical garden, botanic gardens, and other Conservation biology, conservation facilitie ...

program in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the land iguanas were reintroduced to Baltra. As of 1997, the new colony comprised 97 iguanas, 13 of which were born on Baltra.

Transport

was established by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Aircraft stationed at Seymour patrolled the

Eastern Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

for Japanese and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s, particularly on the routes to the

. The facilities were transferred to the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

after the war. The old airfield and the foundations of buildings from the US base are still visible, but the field has been moved and modernized. Since 1986, air travel to the Galápagos has been shared with San Cristóbal Airport on San Cristóbal Island but private planes must fly to Seymour as it is the only airport with overnight facilities for planes. Seymour also continues service as a base for the

Ecuadorian Air Force The Ecuadorian Air Force (; FAE) is the air branch of the Armed Forces of Ecuador. Mission To develop the military air wing, in order to execute institutional objectives which guarantee sovereignty and contribute towards the nation's security an ...

. The most recent modernization began in 2011 and was completed in 2013, after which ECOGAL, a subsidiary of the

Argentinian Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

Corporación América, will enjoy a 15-year concession to the location. ECOGAL has promoted the new airport as the "first ecological airport worldwide" due to various improvements to its energy consumption, rainwater recovery, waste recycling, and so on. Visitors arriving at Seymour are driven by bus to two docks, one located by a small bay where tour boats away passengers and the second the dock on the Itabaca Channel for the ferry to Santa Cruz.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* .

External links

Baltra Information Galápagos online.com
{{Galápagos Islands Islands of the Galápagos Islands