Losing Track
jjacquet | May 15, 2007Many foreign vessels are driven to fish the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) by the demand for shark fin soup in East Asian markets and the high numbers of sharks that gather in the warmer northern waters of the archipelago. Such was the case for the Nino Dios. In1998, the Nino Dios was captured with 8,000 shark fins onboard--equivalent to ~1600 sharks. Sharks, as top predators, are crucial to marine ecosystems and are also the backbone of dive tourism in the islands. The capture and finning of sharks is strictly prohibited within the GMR but it happens and it happens a lot.
As one ex-shark…
jjacquet | May 10, 2007The designation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve has not entirely buffered the waters from change. Tom Okey, a former student of Daniel Pauly, showed that the phenomenon of "fishing down the food web" is indeed occurring in the islands (though fishing at lower trophic levels has also yielded bad results, to be discussed in a later post). The sailfin grouper (Mycteroperca olfax), once the most valuable and exploited fish (see photo of seco-selado), once made up more than 40% of the catch but now makes up 20% of catch. The average size of sailfin grouper also declined and in 1996, it was…
jjacquet | May 8, 2007In 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…
jjacquet | May 7, 2007Tortuga Bay is arguably the most beautiful beach on the island of Santa Cruz--with fine sand, perfect waves, and bobbing green sea turtles. It has no road access, which is part of its charm.
In 1988, when Jorge first started working as the Park Guard at the entrance to Turtle Bay, the 2.5 km trail to the white sandy beaches was walked fewer than 5000 times that year. In 2006 more than 60,000 visitors made their way to Tortuga Bay. But Jorge's baseline is outdone by that of Jacqueline de Roy, one of the pioneers of Galapagos who has been living on the island of Santa Cruz for more than 50…
jjacquet | May 3, 2007Tourism is not the only thing growing in Galapagos. The number of inhabitants has grown tremendously over the last 35 years and very few people have lived in Galapagos long enough to discern it. People can only live on five islands (one of which only allows an Ecuadorian military base) of the thirteen in the archipelago.
The population of the islands grew from ~5,000 to 15,000 between 1975 and 1998. Today, the population growth rate in Galapagos is around 7%, which is higher than any other province in Ecuador. Official census data from 2005 estimate ~24,000 island residents, though these…
jjacquet | May 1, 2007
In 2001, when I first came to the Galapagos, there were two flights each day. My baseline was, therefore, 14 flights per week. But island old-timers reminisce about the two-flights-per-week-good-old-days. When I flew in today, I was on one of five flights to the Galapagos Islands; there are now 35 flights each week.
Organized tourism began in the islands in 1969 with a few small hotels and boats. In the early 1980s fewer than 15,000 tourists visited Galapagos. Ten years later, tourism had grown to about 50,000 visitors. Ten years more and this number doubled. In 2006, more than 120,000…
jjacquet | April 18, 2007
When the rainforest goes silent...
So whether you want to or not, the sad fact is, in the future, you will all get to know this relatively new term, "shifting baselines." It was coined for the oceans in 1995, but here is an article applying it to the worldwide decline in amphibian populations.
I suppose you could also call it the, "What's missing from this picture?" syndrome. The day will come when people will walk through relatively quiet rain forests and think they are seeing pristine nature, yet not even notice the absence of frog croaks, bird songs, and howls of monkeys. It's about…