Qualla: Malpelo Island

Malpelo Island: Introduction

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oscarjgr, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the deck of a boat approaching from the east, Malpelo looks less like an island than a mistake - a single slab of black basalt stabbing straight out of an empty Pacific, with no beach, no trees, no obvious way to land. The rock is 500 kilometers west of the Colombian mainland, further out than most people expect Colombia to extend. It rises 300 meters to the summit of Cerro de la Mona, measures only about a mile and a half long, and for most of recorded history it has been notable mainly for being difficult to reach. What it offers instead lies underwater. Drop below the surface and Malpelo becomes one of the richest shark gathering grounds in the world.

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Image: Oscarjgr | CC BY-SA 3.0

Malpelo Island: A Ridge That Almost Stayed Hidden

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leon Brocard from London, UK, CC BY 2.0. Malpelo is the only point of the Malpelo Ridge that ever broke the sea surface. The ridge itself runs northeast to southwest for 300 kilometers along the Pacific floor, a submarine mountain range 100 kilometers wide that almost no one sees. The island at its high point is made of...

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Image: Leon Brocard from London, UK | CC BY 2.0

Malpelo Island: The Shark Capital

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jdmacarenoq, CC BY-SA 4.0. The reason divers cross open ocean to reach Malpelo is simple: sharks, in numbers most divers never see anywhere else. Hammerheads school here by the hundreds - reports of 500 animals in a single swarm are routine. Silky sharks cruise the thermoclines. The rare smalltooth sand ti...

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Image: Jdmacarenoq | CC BY-SA 4.0

Malpelo Island: Life on a Guano Rock

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Haplochromis, CC BY-SA 3.0. At first glance the island above water looks dead. Look again. Bird guano has built up over millennia in thick layers, and on that foundation a small community of algae, lichens, mosses, ferns, and shrubs has taken hold. Lizards are the only non-avian vertebrates: three species, ...

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Image: Haplochromis | CC BY-SA 3.0

Malpelo Island: A Rock Apart

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pete from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The remoteness that protects Malpelo also makes it odd in other ways. It is so cut off from other landmasses that amateur radio operators count it as a separate DXCC entity - one of those rare spots radio hobbyists mount special DXpeditions to reach, with the Colombian government...

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Image: Pete from USA | CC BY-SA 2.0