The Fort Worth Press - Darwin's Galapagos island species, protected yet still at risk

USD -
AED 3.6725
AFN 65.498831
ALL 81.910095
AMD 378.010177
ANG 1.79008
AOA 917.000095
ARS 1442.232097
AUD 1.447974
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.679026
BAM 1.658807
BBD 2.01469
BDT 122.336816
BGN 1.67937
BHD 0.376968
BIF 2960
BMD 1
BND 1.274003
BOB 6.911584
BRL 5.272703
BSD 1.000305
BTN 90.399817
BWP 13.243033
BYN 2.865297
BYR 19600
BZD 2.011721
CAD 1.37165
CDF 2230.000045
CHF 0.777555
CLF 0.02195
CLP 866.710083
CNY 6.93805
CNH 6.939685
COP 3700.85
CRC 495.911928
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 93.825019
CZK 20.603404
DJF 177.71986
DKK 6.34081
DOP 62.995021
DZD 130.060373
EGP 46.856399
ERN 15
ETB 155.150026
EUR 0.849125
FJD 2.216898
FKP 0.732184
GBP 0.739795
GEL 2.69498
GGP 0.732184
GHS 10.974974
GIP 0.732184
GMD 72.999956
GNF 8760.500761
GTQ 7.672344
GYD 209.27195
HKD 7.81303
HNL 26.454967
HRK 6.3973
HTG 131.225404
HUF 322.782007
IDR 16886.95
ILS 3.119945
IMP 0.732184
INR 90.321502
IQD 1310.5
IRR 42125.000158
ISK 122.900592
JEP 0.732184
JMD 156.449315
JOD 0.708997
JPY 156.633502
KES 129.000438
KGS 87.449771
KHR 4033.000063
KMF 419.000058
KPW 900.030004
KRW 1471.989986
KWD 0.30744
KYD 0.833598
KZT 493.342041
LAK 21500.000573
LBP 85550.000319
LKR 309.548446
LRD 186.150152
LSL 16.260081
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 6.324959
MAD 9.185022
MDL 16.999495
MGA 4440.000275
MKD 52.338218
MMK 2099.783213
MNT 3569.156954
MOP 8.049755
MRU 39.849936
MUR 46.050157
MVR 15.450164
MWK 1737.000329
MXN 17.55195
MYR 3.951299
MZN 63.749722
NAD 16.285115
NGN 1367.09822
NIO 36.701015
NOK 9.81742
NPR 144.639707
NZD 1.684896
OMR 0.384507
PAB 1.000314
PEN 3.367497
PGK 4.265974
PHP 58.815021
PKR 279.737212
PLN 3.587406
PYG 6605.373863
QAR 3.641349
RON 4.3236
RSD 99.675965
RUB 76.750999
RWF 1453
SAR 3.750175
SBD 8.058149
SCR 14.65365
SDG 601.502308
SEK 9.06708
SGD 1.27589
SHP 0.750259
SLE 24.450569
SLL 20969.499267
SOS 571.484438
SRD 37.870144
STD 20697.981008
STN 21.05
SVC 8.752036
SYP 11059.574895
SZL 16.305262
THB 31.850216
TJS 9.362532
TMT 3.505
TND 2.847496
TOP 2.40776
TRY 43.61304
TTD 6.773307
TWD 31.665034
TZS 2584.999947
UAH 43.163845
UGX 3570.701588
UYU 38.599199
UZS 12275.000276
VES 377.985125
VND 25955
VUV 119.687673
WST 2.726344
XAF 556.374339
XAG 0.015352
XAU 0.000213
XCD 2.70255
XCG 1.802745
XDR 0.691101
XOF 554.499549
XPF 101.697491
YER 238.401353
ZAR 16.34654
ZMK 9001.196933
ZMW 18.580528
ZWL 321.999592
  • CMSC

    0.0300

    23.55

    +0.13%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    16.14

    +0.12%

  • RIO

    -5.3600

    91.12

    -5.88%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    86.89

    -1.04%

  • CMSD

    0.0200

    23.89

    +0.08%

  • RBGPF

    0.1000

    82.5

    +0.12%

  • BCC

    -1.0700

    89.16

    -1.2%

  • GSK

    1.9400

    59.17

    +3.28%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0600

    16.62

    -0.36%

  • BTI

    0.3300

    61.96

    +0.53%

  • BCE

    -0.7700

    25.57

    -3.01%

  • VOD

    -1.0900

    14.62

    -7.46%

  • JRI

    -0.1500

    13

    -1.15%

  • RELX

    0.3100

    30.09

    +1.03%

  • BP

    -1.0300

    38.17

    -2.7%

  • AZN

    -0.2900

    187.16

    -0.15%

Darwin's Galapagos island species, protected yet still at risk
Darwin's Galapagos island species, protected yet still at risk / Photo: © AFP

Darwin's Galapagos island species, protected yet still at risk

Industrial fishing boats hover menacingly on the edges of Ecuador's Galapagos Marine Reserve, where schools of multicolored fish and hammerhead sharks frolic in the protected Pacific waters.

Text size:

The reserve is a haven for the flurry of creatures and plants living in the waters around the Galapagos Islands where naturalist Charles Darwin found the inspiration for his theory of natural selection.

But outside its boundaries, not delineated by any physical barrier, there is no protection on the high seas where these same species also venture.

The sharks, turtles, iguanas, sea lions and fish that thrive in the Galapagos "don't understand political boundaries," Stuart Banks, a senior marine scientist at the Charles Darwin Foundation, told AFP on board Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise research vessel.

"So they're going to be moving between different territories and that's when they're most at risk, particularly to things like industrial fishing and bycatch."

The solution, according to Greenpeace, is to secure a much larger area of ocean by creating the first-ever marine protected area on the high seas bordering the Galapagos Marine Reserve.

But for this to happen, at least 60 countries must ratify the High Seas Treaty adopted by United Nations member states last June. Only two have done so to date.

- Like a jigsaw puzzle -

AFP accompanied an Arctic Sunrise scientific mission to the area this month to investigate the threats posed to the Galapagos Marine Reserve, which Greenpeace describes as "probably the best conservation project carried out in the oceans."

The reserve of nearly 200,000 square kilometers (some 77,000 square miles) is one of the world's largest and most biodiverse with more than 3,000 species, many of them found nowhere else.

Biologist Paola Sangolqui explained she was testing water samples to analyze "which marine species have been in this area and have left some kind of DNA trace."

For his part, Daniel Armijos was in charge of underwater video monitoring of fish numbers and prevalence.

"It is kind of like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle because everything is integrated in some way," explained Banks.

"And if you're looking to prioritize the most important regions to start working, to know where those corridors are (along which species migrate), you need to use genetics so you can start to look at how particular populations are connected from one region to another."

- Hammerhead haven -

From the Arctic Sunrise, scientists also descended a robot to explore the coral reefs that serve as key feeding and breeding grounds for many fish, said expedition leader Sophie Cooke, for whom "the abundance of marine life in this national park is simply staggering."

Marine reserve employee Eduardo Espinoza, in charge of day-to-day monitoring, told AFP the archipelago is a rare sanctuary for hammerhead sharks, whose fins are a delicacy in some Asian countries.

Hammerheads were at particular risk of "overfishing and illegal fishing," Espinoza said as he fixed an identifying label to a young specimen.

"In the Galapagos, hammerhead sharks are always abundant. They have a refuge here to reproduce, from where they move throughout the Pacific," he added.

- Free species worth more -

Cooke said the Galapagos was an important migratory stop for many species, which is "why we need to connect all these different marine protected areas and protect these reserves: so the migration routes of these species can be kept safe."

The Galapagos Islands are designated a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.

Another reason to protect the area is its attraction for tens of thousands of visitors every year, like American diver Ryan Doyle, 24.

"In comparison to Florida, where I'd also dive recreationally, there's so much life here," Doyle told AFP. "There's so many sharks and everything looks so healthy. So you can kind of like see the conservation" at work.

Diving instructor Anthony Gavilanes, 30, said locals like himself nowadays "live off tourism" more than fishing, as before.

"For us, species swimming freely in the water are worth more than they are on a plate served at a table."

D.Ford--TFWP