In 1792, James Colnett came to Galapagos aboard the HMS Rattler to scout a whaling station. Over the next seventy years, boats from the U.S. and England harpooned and processed whales in the islands. In 1835, Darwin made his famous visit and, six years later, he was followed by Herman Melville.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first pioneers to Galapagos relied heavily on fresh and salted fish and turtle meat (there was no refrigeration). In the 1920's, the first commercial fishing occurred in the islands with Norwegian settlers who began the practice of 'seco-selado' (opening fish, salting, and drying), which was directed at one species, Mycteroperca olfax or the sailfin grouper.
'Seco-selado'
Photo published in H. Idrovo's Galapagos: Huellas en el Paraiso
Large motherships began to visit the Galapagos in the 1950s and 60s and sent out small boats that carried divers for lobsters. In the 1960's and 70's, large capacity freezers really changed the local fishery in Galapagos to an export fishery. Tuna vessels from the U.S. were also fishing heavily in Galapagos waters during this time.
Industrial fishing was banned in the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 1998 but there are a number of small-scale fishermen living in Galapagos who still permitted to fish whitefish, sea cucumbers, and lobsters. In 1985 there were 235 local 'Galapagueno' fishermen; 10 years later there were 455 fishermen in the islands. In 2001, there were 956 and, at present, there are more than 1000. The next blog posts will be about their interaction with fisheries resources...
Fishing today
Photo by R. Wollocombe
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