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Fishing is one of the most important activities in Galapagos. It can produce more than 2 million dollars per year. It is source of employment for more than 500 fishers and their families. In addition, fishing is essential for food security for the local people of the Archipelago. There are more than 50 species that can be fished in Galapagos; among the most important are: spiny lobsters, slipper lobster and fish.
CDF along with Galapagos National Park Directorate and other partners are carrying out interdisciplinary researches to achieve sustainable fisheries in Galapagos. These researches include, from the biology and ecology of species, line-based ecosystems, capture technologies, up to the governance, sociology of fishers and economy of fishing activity.
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Fisheries are complex systems that interrelate nature with human society; for this reason, they are called socio-ecological systems. Their function depends on several variables: biological (i.e. reproduction), environmental (i.e. Climate Change), ecological (i.e. food chains), technological (i.e. fishing methods), social (i.e. governance) and economic (i.e. markets). Therefore, we need an interdisciplinary scientific team to study and understand the fishing system of Galapagos.
On biological and ecological components of fisheries, we are studying the life histories of the main fish species of Galapagos. We want to know how many years they live, at which age they reproduce, what they feed with and where they live when they are larvae, juveniles and adults. We are also researching the mangroves woods in Galapagos, as they are one of the principal ecosystems where fishes and lobsters grow up. We are learning about the distribution and dynamics of mangroves and studying the environmental services that this ecosystem provides to the Galapagos’ economic value.
In the technological component, along with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, we are assessing Fishing Aggregating Devises as a tool for sustainable fishing. These devices are buoys of more than one meter of diameter, anchored to the seabed and with a mesh below that attracts pelagic fishes like tunas and swordfishes. Our expectation is that this tool can help fishers to diversify their fishing without threaten environment and to increase their economic incomes, since the pelagic fishes have faster reproduction cycles than other fish species.
In 2019, we are opening a new research area to study the social and economic components of fisheries in Galapagos. On one hand, we want to analyze in detail the fishery governance since the creation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve up to the present. On the other hand, we want to study the market tools that incentivize sustainable fishing practices in Galapagos more.
It is important to mention that Climate Change is a transversal study for all of our research. It is fundamental to know the impact of this global threat on fishing species, ecosystems and people that depend on this activity in Galapagos.
Our results are disseminated to authorities, fishers, scientists and the public through scientific papers, technical reports, talks, workshops and environmental education programs. We permanently advise on the fisheries assessments that the Galapagos National Park Directorate elaborates annually, and we train their staff on technical-scientific tools to improve the management of fisheries in Galapagos.
The objective of the project is to understand the socio-ecologic fishing system of Galapagos to provide updated information and to improve the management of the fisheries in the islands.
We have generated very important research about Galapagos fisheries. We know that the Galapagos grouper, the white-spotted sand bass and the mottled scorpionfish are long-lived species that need several years for reproduction. This means that they are species very vulnerable to overexploitation. Indeed, our data indicates that the three species are overexploited in Galapagos (Usseglio et al. 2015; Salinas-de-León et al. 2017; Salinas-de-León et al. 2015; Marin Jarrín et al. 2018).
Additionally, we obtained information about the first stages of life of fishes and crustaceans. We identified that zones between mangrove and sand beaches ecosystems are habitats of small pelagic fish species, such as sardine, herring and anchovies. These species are not only important for fisheries as bait, but also as food for boobies and sea lions. Also, we observed that the communities of crustaceans’ larvae have spatial and seasonal variations, probably caused by sea temperature, currents and nutrients (Eiler, 2018).
We updated information about distribution and dynamics of mangrove woods in Galapagos. This ecosystem, the most important for the growth of fishing species like fishes and lobsters, includes approximately 3,700 hectares in the Archipelago, covering 35% of the coast. Besides that, we demonstrated that the majority of mangroves are in a small area of less than 0.25 hectares. Multi-temporal spatial analysis showed that the mangrove coverage has increased 24% in the last ten years.
We demonstrated that Galapagos is one of the few sites in the world where the mangrove woods have increased in a natural way. This means they increased without human intervention in their reforestation, since people practically do not have any local anthropic impacts. It is important to note that we used an innovative and low-cost methodology of Google Earth’s high-resolution images that can be replicated in other coastal zones of the world (Moity et al. 2019).
Using the information about the distribution of mangroves in Galapagos, we quantified the value of three environmental services that this ecosystem provides: tourism, fisheries and Climate Change mitigation by storing CO2. This is the first study of this type in Ecuador (Tanner et al., 2019 in preparation).
Along with Galapagos National Park Directorate, we are assessing Fishing Aggregating Devises (FADs) as a sustainable tool for the fishery of pelagic fishes in Galapagos. Currently, we have found that the FADs attracted a huge amount of fish, 16 tons on average; however, there is not much interest for the fishers, mainly due to market reasons such as low prices and a small market (Moina, et al. 2018; Ramírez et al. 2019 in preparation).
At present we continue studying life histories of fishes, collecting larvae, assessing FADs and we are going to start research lines in social and economic areas to have a better comprehension on the socio-ecologic fishing system of Galapagos.
Keywords: Fishery, fishes, lobsters, slipper lobster, sea cucumber
Brown University, Conservation International Ecuador, Delhausie University, Galapagos National Park Directorate, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Free University of Brussels, Ghent University, Humboldt State University, Oregon State University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Galapagos artisanal fishermen, Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society, Sharks of the Atlantic Research and Conservation Centre, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Universidad de Guayaquil, Universidad de La Laguna, San Francisco de Quito University, Universidad Yachay Tech, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, University of Aberdeen, University of British Columbia, University of California at San Diego, University of Hawaii, University of Stockholm, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire.