Long-line disaster threatens Galapagos

The ambition of Galapagos fishermen to introduce long-lining puts the archipelago’s unique wildlife under threat. Picture / Reuters

Environmental disaster is looming in the Galapagos Islands, the Pacific archipelago whose unique wildlife inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Already under pressure from a rapidly growing population and mass tourism, the waters around the Galapagos face being devastated by one of the world's most wildlife-damaging fishing methods.

The Galapagos have been officially protected for nearly 20 years and form part of the Galapagos World Heritage Site.

But now the islands' 1000 fishermen want to introduce long-lining - a technique involving lines many kilometres long holding hundreds of thousands of baited hooks, which catch and kill as many birds and animals as the fish that are targeted.

Conservationists fear that the species-rich marine ecosystem of the islands, owned by the South American state of Ecuador and 965km west of its coast, will be cut to pieces.

Sea lions, dolphins, turtles, sharks, penguins, albatrosses and many other seabirds, all of which are major tourist attractions, are all likely to fall victim to the hooks.

"This will be a disaster for the environment," said Leonor Stjepic, the executive director of the London-based Galapagos Conservation Trust.

Unesco, the United Nations organisation which declared the islands a World Heritage Site in 1978, is sending a delegation on April 10 to investigate the "urgent situation".

The UN body is considering putting the islands on its "danger list".

Some observers feel the threat has increased under the administration of Colonel Lucio Guiterrez, which came to power two years ago and has been propped up by support from militant unions.

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