The Galapagos, one of the richest marine environments in the world, are under attack from illegal fishing by Galapaguenos and industrial fishing boats. Unless we act now to slow the rate of exploitation, the Galapagos Islands marine environment could soon be decimated.
Following the collapse of coastal fisheries in Ecuador, a cash-strapped country with a burgeoning population, the Galapagos have become a seemingly limitless fountain of food and cash. Result: The hands-off mystique that once protected this 19-island archipelago - declared a World Heritage Site in 1978 - has evaporated, replaced by a frenzied, sometimes lawless exploitation reminiscent of America's Wild West. Leaders of Ecuador's populist movement, representing the poverty-stricken masses, now view the Galapagos as a resource, like oil reserves or mineral deposits, theirs to exploit as needed.
If the economic potential of the Galapagos is to be fully realized, we must convince leaders that sharks and grouper are worth more alive as tourist attractions than grilled on a plate. Only if the integrity of the marine environment is preserved can it play a long-term role in Ecuador's economic struggle.
The Galapagos remain a crucible - a place where two competing forces locked in titanic struggle, a conflict that is nothing less than a test of our species' ability to live on this planet without using it up. If we lose the Galapagos, the birthplace of the theory of evolution, if these islands become just another fished-out has-been, we must face the eventual possibility that this is also where evolution began to die.
