The Galápagos Islands, which are a part of Ecuador, are famous for being the inspiration of Darwin’s theory of evolution where he was able to observe evolution in real time. These days, legal mechanisms protecting the ecosystems surrounding the islands themselves are also evolving to continuously promote the same biodiversity that led to Darwin’s discoveries…
(Image by: Deepti Bansal Gage)
The past
The Galápagos Marine Reserve was created in 1986 with an area of around 27,000 mi2. Ecuador expanded the Reserve to over 51,000 mi2 in 1998, designating it as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) and it was also later designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This expansion made the Galápagos Marine Reserve the second largest marine reserve in the world with more than 2,900 marine species—20% of which are found nowhere else on earth. The reserve serves as an iconic, international model of what marine protection should look like, with carefully managed fishing and tourism operations. However, despite efforts to conserve the waters of the MPA, the areas outside the boundary of the MPA are threatened by overfishing — and the threat is compounded with the impacts of climate change.
(Image by: Deepti Bansal Gage)
The present
To help further combat the issues of overfishing and climate change, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP26 in October 2021, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced that the country would expand the reserve by 23,000 square miles. On Jan. 14, 2022, President Lasso fulfilled this promise by signing a declaration to expand the reserve. While this conservation strategy was pursued through Ecuadorian domestic policy, it also plays a key role in the future international protection of marine ecosystems that are threatened by climate change and overfishing across the Pacific.
(Image by: Deepti Bansal Gage)
Even with Ecuador’s expanded domestic ocean protection, the threats to its marine ecosystems still exist. Just outside the Galápagos Marine Reserve, many forms of fishing and extraction still occur within the standard 200 nautical miles of Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). In the EEZ, the country can choose to control many activities, including fishing and extraction of resources, if it desires. However, outside of the EEZ are international waters — often seen as the “wild west” of the ocean, due to the lack of substantial laws or protections. Chinese and other foreign fishing vessels have been observed congregating en masse in the international waters just beyond Ecuador’s EEZ, seeking to fish and capture massive quantities of the wildlife that the country seeks to protect from overfishing.
Not only are many of these Chinese vessels fishing for protected species like hammerhead and other sharks for the infamous “shark fin soup,” they were also recorded fishing huge quantities of squid, a major food source for many endemic apex predator species of the Galápagos, such as fur seals and hammerhead sharks, compounding the negative impact on the food chain and balance of the ecosystem. The foreign vessels have been known to target migratory species that often travel thousands of miles, where the Galápagos Marine Reserve is just one stop on their path.
(Image from Mission Blue)
According to Salvador Cazar, a Lindblad Expeditions Naturalist who works aboard the National Geographic Endeavour II in the Galápagos, these Chinese fleets can be observed in the hundreds traveling along the edges of Ecuador’s EEZ for up to a year.
They even travel with their own oil tankers so they do not need to leave the international waters for long periods to refuel.
The future
The question becomes: How do we overcome the threats of overfishing and climate change? The answer lies in following the example of nature…
As aptly put by Cazar, diversity has allowed us to robustly tackle many problems and affords us the opportunity to tackle more issues—including overfishing. Engaging with multiple international stakeholders could be the key to limit overfishing in waters that are within a nation’s control to create corridors. International engagement, discussion, and collaborative involvement has led to conversations around a multi-party legal scheme to protect the major migratory paths of many marine species threatened by overfishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape. According to Cazar, involvement from many countries with unique desires and perspectives has led to a proposal that would use international finances to protect more ocean space and incentivize countries with neighboring waters, like Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama to protect even more of their respective EEZs.
In the case of the recent Galápagos Marine Reserve expansion, Ecuador would likely buy back its debt at a discounted rate through issuing “blue bonds” which would be backed by the U.S. International Development Corporation. The discounted rate would afford Ecuador the opportunity to spend more on preserving the newly protected area and establish more fishing restrictions in its EEZ. While this would decrease the country’s fishing revenue, it would allow increased protection of biodiversity that could increase fish stocks in the long run while also providing some financial benefit. This incentivized, market-based thinking is already sought to be replicated in other areas of Ecuador’s EEZ as well as other countries in order to expand protections against overfishing within their EEZs.
(Image by Ecuador’s Ministry of Environmental, Water, and Ecological Transition; the green shaded area represents the proposed no-take/ no fishing zone which would serve as an "ocean highway" for migratory species and the yellow shaded area represents where long-line fishing would be prohibited)
Credits:
Photos and images not individually attributed are by Deepti Bansal Gage