Galapagos Islands Essay, Research Paper

Sea Cucumis sativuss in the Galapagos are being fished out illicitly in malice of a four-year prohibition that is unsuccessfully enforced by the Ecuadorian authorities. Most sea Cucumis sativuss are dried and exported to Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Waterss off of mainland Ecuador have already been stripped of commercially valuable sea Cucumis sativuss. The contention in the Galapagos involves the inability to prolong sea Cucumis sativus harvest home, and that the remotion of 1000000s of sea Cucumis sativuss will hold damaging effects on the nutrient concatenation in the Waterss of the Galapagos. ( Sullivan, 1999 ) Aside from the ecological harm, it is feared that these fishermen will travel after other, rarer species when the sea Cucumis sativuss are depleted. ( Stutz, 1995 ) It has been proposed to raise sea Cucumis sativus in imprisonment, but troubles exist, such as turn uping the sexually mature sea Cucumis sativuss, the timing of copulating the animate beings, supplying the necessary nutrient for the larvae, and so let go ofing the sea Cucumis sativuss at the right clip. ( Cohn, 1996 )

The sea Cucumis sativus, or Cucumaria frondosa, do up the category Holothuroidae, of the phylum Echinodermata. The sea Cucumis sativus is related to the sea star, and can be described as large slug-like blobs. Sea Cucumis sativuss have a rubbery-like, warty organic structure and their length can run from 0.8 inches to 6.5 pess. They have tube-like pess that project from underneath them and give them the sulky caterpillar-like contractions as they move. Sea Cucumis sativuss breathe through branched respiratory tubings, or trees that go from the cloaca to the organic structure pit. The cloaca contract, coercing H2O into the respiratory. The H2O is emptied into the organic structure pit and mixes with organic structure fluids and supplies the sea Cucumis sativus with O. ( Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000 )

Sea Cucumis sativuss have a really of import function in nature and keeping the ecological balance in the sea. They prey on a assortment of little beings, which aids in commanding the population of these beings. Disintegrating affair on the seafloor is nutrient for the sea Cucumis sativus. The sea Cucumis sativus ingests seafloor deposits by get downing big measures, go throughing it through the bowel, and ejects the balance. A big population of sea Cucumis sativuss within an country can treat big measures of deposits, and well alter the composing of the deposits. ( Encyclop? Defense Intelligence Agency Britannica Online ) The sea Cucumis sativus in the sea can be compared to the angleworm on land, as they turnover bottom deposits that helps to free foods. The sea Cucumis sativuss & # 8217 ; sperm, eggs, and larvae are an of import beginning of nutrient for beings runing from one-celled animate beings to angle. Sea Cucumis sativuss can account for 90 % of the biomass.

The high demand for the sea Cucumis sativus can be attributed to it being a epicure daintiness in Asia, and is considered to be an aphrodisiac every bit good as holding medicative belongingss such as being a intervention for high blood force per unit area. ( Sitwell, 1993 ) The sea Cucumis sativuss & # 8217 ; flesh is made up of 50 & # 8211 ; 60 % proteins, which makes for beginning of high-quality nutrient. When the Waterss of Micronesia were thoroughly harvested for the sea Cucumis sativus, fishermen set their sights foremost to Ecuador & # 8217 ; s Pacific seashore in 1988, and so to the Galapagos in early 1992. ( Cohn, 1996 )

The Galapagos is a bunch of volcanic islands that belongs to the state of Ecuador. The islands are located 600 stat mis from the seashore of South America. The islands were named & # 8220 ; Galapagos & # 8221 ; after one of its dwellers, the elephantine tortoise or Galapagos Islands. The bishop of Panama, Tom? s de Berlanga, happened upon the Galapagos Islands by accident in 1535 during his ocean trip to Peru when his ship had drifted of its class. Spanish voyagers of the sixteenth century used the islands as a topographic point to halt, as did plagiarists and huntsmans. Ecuador took ownership of Galapagos in 1832, after the country had set without colonisation for about 300 old ages. The English naturalist Charles Darwin & # 8217 ; s visit to the islands in 1835 resulted in international celebrity for the country. Darwin & # 8217 ; s theories on natural choice can be attributed to his visit to Galapagos. The native finches on the islands are normally referred to as Darwin & # 8217 ; s finches. ( Encyclop? Defense Intelligence Agency Britannica Online )

The ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands is really alone and attracted the imaginativenesss of life scientists and tourers for many old ages. The assortment of animate being and works life that exists here are all resident species, of which their ascendants had to wing, impetus, swim or hitched a drive at that place, because the islands were ne’er attached to any other land mass. An amazing fifty- per centum of the birds and 95 % of the reptilians, 42 % of land workss, 80 % of insects, and 17 % of fish exist merely on Galapagos. Along with the elephantine tortoise, other dwellers are the Galapagos penguins, waved millstones, flightless Phalacrocorax carbos, Galapagos pelt seals, seagoing iguanas, three types of rice rat, Galapagos chiropterans, and the blue-footed dumbbells ( a type of sea bird ) . There are 13 species of the Darwin & # 8217 ; s finch, which was used by Charl

es Darwin to exemplify his theory of development. ( Lemonick, 1995 )

Galapagos has a really delicate ecosystem that could be upset by a little alteration in the environment. Sea cucumber fishing can hold a Domino consequence on the environing environment. The fishermen cook the sea Cucumis sativuss before exportation, therefore using the wood from the Rhizophora mangle swamps. There are 336 types of algae and 400 types of molluscs that are straight affected when the ecosystem is upset by the over-fishing. ( Trade Environment Database, 1994 ) Studies have shown that sea cucumber populations can be depressed for old ages after the over-fishing takes topographic point. The over-fishing that occurred before World War II is still apparent in that the population of sea Cucumis sativuss has non to the full recovered. ( Cohn, 1996 )

In an attempt to protect Galapagos, the islands were declared a national park in 1959. The Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve was created in 1986 to protect of the 29,000-square stat mis of Waterss that surround the island. The islands are now a biosphere modesty and the Waterss are a sanctuary for giants. Ecuador has a history of being really protective of its environment, and has been highly rigorous with tourers. ( Cohn, 1996 )

The Ecuadorian authorities opened sea Cucumis sativus season to fishermen in October of 1994. The high monetary value that is paid for these animals attracted tonss of angling boats. The authorities set a entire bound to the figure of sea Cucumis sativuss to be caught at 550,000. It is estimated that every bit many as 7 to 10 million sea Cucumis sativuss were harvested. The boats that arrived from the mainland to roll up the sea Cucumis sativuss were transporting cocottes and drugs. Some of the cocottes were really paid with bags of sea Cucumis sativuss that they could rapidly sell for hard currency. ( Lemonick, 1995 )

The fishermen illicitly went ashore to dry their gimmick of sea Cucumis sativuss in readying for transporting. There were frights that because the fishermen left behind dust, that rats from the fishing boats would come ashore. The scientists were really concerned about the rats happening the reptilian eggs. & # 8220 ; Rats would perfectly lay waste to a whole set of species if they got ashore, & # 8221 ; said Canadian ecologist Peter Bednekoff. ( Langreth, 1995 ) Researchers are really concerned that mainland rats and other species that may hold hitched a drive on the fishermen & # 8217 ; s boats, which were anchored merely off the islands. These rats could present a serious danger to the species that are natural dwellers of Galapagos. ( Stone, 1995 )

An Ecuadorian fisherman can do every bit much as $ 100 a twenty-four hours reaping the Waterss around the island, as compared to the $ 71 a month that in the over-fished Waterss off of Ecuador. Along with sea Cucumis sativus, the fishermen are in hunt of lobster and shark for their clients in Hong Kong. The fishermen ruin the countries of the beautiful home ground by cutting down trees to put up cantonment, and leave behind rubbish and human waste.

The utmost over-fishing forced the authorities & # 8217 ; s determination to close down the sea Cucumis sativus season one month early. The fishermen were so outraged by the shut down, that with the aid of an Ecuadorian congresswoman, they illicitly seized the national park and research installations. The three-day take-over was accompanied by menaces from the fishermen to put fire to the home ground, kill rare animate beings, and take guiltless tourers as sureties. ( Cohn, 1996 )

A six-year suspension on fishing and limitations on lobster hunting was implemented in 1993. In an attempt to ease tensenesss, the authorities started dialogues with the sea Cucumis sativus fishing industry in February of 1995. The authorities decided that the fishing suspension would stay in tact and the piscary closed. Because of the prohibition on industry and agriculture, the fishermen claim that there is no other alternate but to take advantage of the island & # 8217 ; s resources. ( Trade Environment Database, 1994 )

Bibliography

Cohn, Jeffrey P. Jan 1996. Sea Cucumis sativuss and coup d’etats of scientific establishments. Life science 46 ( 1 ) : 70 ( 2 )

Encyclop? Defense Intelligence Agency Britannica Online. Sea Cucumis sativus ; Galapagos. hypertext transfer protocol: //search.eb.com ;

Langreth, Robert. May 1995. Showdown in the Galapagos. Popular Science 246 ( 5 ) : 20 ( 1 )

Lemonick, Michael D. Oct 30, 1995. Can the Galapagos last? Time 146 ( 18 ) : 80 ( 3 )

Microsoft? Encarta? Online Encyclopedia 2000. Sea Cucumis sativus. hypertext transfer protocol: //encarta.msn.com

Sitwell, Nigel. 1993. The chow and the Galapagos. New Scientist 140 ( 1903 ) : 32

Stone, Richard. Feb 3, 1995. Fishermans threaten Galapagos. Sea Cucumis sativus fishers demand angling rights, threaten research workers and wildlife. Science 267 ( 5198 ) : 611 ( 2 )

Stutz, Bruce. May 1995. The sea cucumber war, Audubon 97 ( 3 ) : 16

Sullivan, Ron. Summer 1999. Bio ticker. Earth Island Journal 14 ( 2 ) : 6

Trade Environment Database. June 1994. Sea Cucumber Loss in the Galapagos. Case Studies 146. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/seacuke.htm.