Shifting Baselines Heads to the Galapagos Islands

The waters around Galapagos are home to more than 500 species of fish, 17% of which are endemic. In 1998, the Ecuadorian government extended the Galapagos Marine Reserve from its 15-mile radius to a 40-mile radius surrounding the archipelago. The reserve now encompasses 133,000 square kilometers of ocean and 1,300 square kilometers of coastline, inflating the reserve's status to the third largest marine reserve in the world. With this expansion also came the complete ban of industrial fishing (though artisanal fishing is still allowed). But both the marine and terrestrial elements of the archipelagos are in jeopardy.

My first exposure to shifting baselines occurred in the Galapagos through Mathias Espinosa, a longtime scuba diver. Mathias explained that during his nearly 25 years in the islands, he heard every diver to come through the islands exclaim that the shark populations were bountiful, despite the evident decline he had witnessed over the decades. Most tourists found it impressive to swim with a couple sharks, let alone hundreds. But divers who had known Galapagos waters since the 1960s and 70s, like Mathias, could recognize the decline in sharks due to their notably earlier baseline.

I will visit the Galapagos Islands for the next three weeks and the theme of the shifting baselines blog will head there, too. Please post comments and questions about Galapagos and I'll do my best to find the answer.

Photograph by Richard Wollocombe