Species at Darwin’s Galápagos Islands protected yet still at risk
Greenpeace calls for creation of first-ever marine protected area on the high seas
Industrial fishing boats hover menacingly on the edges of Ecuador’s Galápagos Marine Reserve, where schools of multicoloured fish and hammerhead sharks frolic in the protected Pacific waters.
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 Galápagos “don’t understand political boundaries,” Stuart Banks, a senior marine scientist at the Charles Darwin Foundation, said 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 Galápagos Marine Reserve.
But for this to happen, at least 60 countries must ratify the High Seas Treaty adopted by UN member states last June. Only two have done so to date.
‘LIke a jIGSaw puzzLe’
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.
“At least 60 countries must ratify the High Seas Treaty… only two have done so to date